745 C89b 65-12702
Crane
The bases of design
REF 745 C89b
Crane
Bases of design
THE BASES OF DESIGN
BY WALTER CRANE
LONDON
,G. LTD,
1920
First Edition, Medium 8vb, 1898. ,
Second Edition, Crown 8vo, 1902.
Reprinted, 1904, 1909, 1914, 1920.
ft TO CHARLES ROWLEY, J.P.
CHAIRMAN OF THE MANCHESTER
MUNICIPAL SCHOOL OF ART, TO
WHOSE ENERGY, SYMPATHY, AND
ENTHUSIASM THE SCHOOL, IN ITS
NEWER DEVELOPMENT, OWES SO
MUCH, AND TO MY FORMER COL-
LEAGUES OF THE TEACHING STAFF,
AS WELL AS TO ALL STUDENTS,
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK &*
PREFACE
I A H E substance of the following chapters ori-
X ginally formed a series of lectures addressed
to the students of the Manchester Municipal
School of Art during my tenure of the directorship
of Design at that institution.
The field covered is an extensive one, and I am
conscious that many branches of my subject are
only touched, whilst others are treated in a very
elementary manner. Every chapter, indeed, might
be expanded into a volume, under such far-reaching
headings, to give to each section anything like
adequate treatment.
My main object, however, has been to trace the
vital veins and nerves of relationship in the arts
of design, which, like the sap from the central stem,
springing from connected and collective roots, out
of a common ground, sustain and unite in one
organic whole the living tree.
In an age when, owing to the action of certain
economic causes the chiefest being commercial
competition the tendency is to specialize each
branch of design, which thus becomes isolated from
the rest, I feel it is most important to keep in mind
the real fundamental connection and essential unity
of art : and though we may, as students and artists,
in practice be intent upon gathering the fruit from
the particular branch we desire to make our own,
we should never be insensible to its relation to
other branches, its dependence upon the main
stem and the source of its life at the root.
vii
PREFACE
Otherwise we are, I think, in danger of becom-
ing mechanical in our work, or too narrowly
technical, while, as a collective result of such
narrowness of view, the art of the age, to which
each individual contributes, shows a want of both
imaginative harmony and technical relation with
itself, when unity of effect and purpose is particu-
larly essential, as in the design and decoration of
both public and private buildings, not to speak of
the larger significance of art as the most permanent
record of the life and ideals of a people.
My illustrations are drawn from many sources,
and consist of a large proportion of those origin-
ally used for the lectures, only that instead of the
rough charcoal sketches done at the time, careful
pen drawings have been -made of many of the
subjects in addition to the photographs and other
authorities.
It may be noted that I have freely used both
line and tone blocks in the text and throughout
the book, although I advocate the use of line
drawings only with type in books wherein com-
pleteness of organic ornamental character is the
object. Such a book as this, however, being
rather in the nature of a tool or auxiliary to a
designer's workshop, can hardly be regarded from
that point of view. The scheme of the work, which
necessitates the gathering together of so many
and varied illustrations as diverse in scale, subject,
and treatment as the historic periods which they
represent, would itself preclude a consistent decor-
ative treatment, and it has been found necessary
to reproduce many of the illustrations from their
original form in large scale drawings on brown
viii
PREFACE
paper touched with white, as well as from photo-
graphs which necessarily print as tone-blocks.
I have to thank Mr. Gleeson White for his
valuable help in many ways, as well as in obtain-
ing permission from various owners of copyright
to use photographs and other illustrations, and
also the publishers, who have allowed me the use
of blocks in some instances Mr. George Allen
for a page from "The Faerie Queene" ; Messrs.
Bradbury, Agnew and Co. for the use of the
" Punch " drawings ; and Messrs. J. S. Virtue and
Co. for the use of photographs of carpet weaving
and glass blowing, which were specially taken for
" The Art Journal." My thanks are also due to
Mr. Metford Warner (Messrs. Jeffrey and Co.)
for the use of his photo-lithographs of my wall-
paper designs issued by his firm; to Mr. R.
Phen6 Spiers for the use of his sketch of the iron
balustrade from Rothenburg; to Mr. T. J. Cobden-
Sanderson for photographs of two of his recent
bookbindings ; to the executors of the late Rev.
W. H. Greeny for permission to reproduce two of
the illustrations from his "Monumental Brasses
on the Continent of Europe" (now published by
Mr. B.T. Batsford); also to Mr. Harold .Rathbone,
who kindly allows me to reproduce the cartoons
by Ford Madox Brown in his possession ; to Mr.
J. Sylvester Sparrow for the practical notes on
painting glass ; and to Mr. Emery Walker for help
in several ways in the preparation of the book.
WALTER CRANE.
KENSINGTON,
November, 1897.
IX
AUTHOR'S NOTE ON THE
PRESENT EDITION
THIS reprint of " The Bases of Design " gives
me an opportunity to correct a few errors
which had inadvertently crept in on its first ap-
pearance, and also to add a word here and there.
I venture to hope that the book may prove
more useful and accessible to students in its
present form.
WALTER CRANE.
KENSINGTON,
November^ 1901.
X
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I OF THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS , . i
II OF THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLU-
ENCE 48
III OF THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL
AND METHOD 91
IV OF THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
IN DESIGN 123
V OF THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE IN
DESIGN CHIEFLY IN REGARD TO
COLOUR AND PATTERN 160
VI OF THE RACIAL INFLUENCE IN DE-
SIGN . 191
VII OF THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE, OR
EMBLEMATIC ELEMENT IN DESIGN . 222
VIII OF THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE, OR
NATURALISM IN DESIGN 259
IX OF THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE IN
DESIGN . 302
X OF THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE IN
DESIGN 350
XI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Three typical Constructive Forms in Architecture Lintel,
Round Arch, Pointed Arch . 5
Gate of Mycenae 6
Imitation of Wooden Construction in Stone Tomb in
Lycia 7
Ornamental lines in the Frieze of the Parthenon ... 8
Metope of the Parthenon, showing relation and propor-
tions of the masses in relief to the ground .... 9
The Parthenon n
The Parthenon Eastern Pediment, sketches showing rela-
tion of lines of sculpture to angle of Pediment ..12
The Parthenon Elevation showing portion of Pediment,
Frieze and Columns , . . . 13
Architectural influence in design of small accessories
(Greek) 15
Section of the Colosseum , . . . . .... . . 17
Hanging the Festal Garland Visit of Bacchus to Icarius 18
Arch of Constantine . . . 19
Mosaic, St. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna ..... 21
Part of Interior 'of Dome of St. Mark's, Venice . . . . 23
Mosaic of the Empress Theodora, St. Vital e, Ravenna . 24
Anselm's Tower, Canterbury . . . 27
Transitional Arcade, South Transept, Canterbury . . . 29
Typical Forms of Arches 30
Typical Forms of Gothic Geometric Foliation . . . . 30
Westminster Abbey, the Nave, looking east . .... 31
Wells Cathedral, West Front . . . . . . . ... 33
Westminster Abbey, Fan Tracery in Henry VIL's Chapel .35
The Five Sisters of York . ... ... . . . . .37
Details of Tomb, Winchelsea Church (1303) . . . . . 38
Fourteenth Century Canopied Tomb, Winchelsea Church 39
Wrought-iron Railing, Wells Cathedral ,40
Canopied Seat and Sideboard, French Fifteenth Century . 41
xiii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Carved Bench-ends, Dennington Church, Suffolk . . 42
Brocade Hanging, from the Annunciation, by Memling . 43
St. David's Cathedral 44
Structural lines of different periods in harmonious combi-
nation, Canterbury Cathedral 45
Matting 49
Primitive Rush Mat 50
Assyrian incised Border 50
Assyrian enamelled Tile 51
Greek Anthemion Ornament 52
Wattled Fence .52
Ancient Volute Ornament .53
Types of Decoration derived from Thonging 54
Frieze of the Temple of the Sybil at Tivoli . . . . . 55
Yoke of Oxen, Carrara ' 55
Barge-board, Ightham Mote House 57
Types of Gables 57
Hazelford Hall, Derbyshire 59
The Principle of the Dripstone . . . 60
Towers of San Gimignano . . . . .61
Tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence ...... 63
Tower with corner Turret, Axinquth Church, Devon . . 64
Cut Brick Chimneys, Leigh's Priory, Essex . . . . .65
Brick Chimney, Framlingham Castle . 66
Cast-iron Fire-dog, St. Nicholas's Hospital, Canterbury . 67
Cast-iron Grate Back, Bruges . , 68
Fireplace with wrought-iron Crane, Church Farm, Hemp-
stead, Essex . . , 69
Candlesticks 71
Brass Chandelier, German Seventeenth Century ... 74
Details of above 75
Lamps, Candlestick, and Snuffers 77
Drinking Vessels, etc. 81
German Beer Mugs . . 82
Italian Flasks and Bottle 83
Pitcher from Rothenburg 87
Plate and Dish Decoration . 87
Typical Border Systems 89
Persistent Pattern Plans, Rectangular Basis . . . . . 89
Corbel, Seventeenth Century, Dennington Church, Suffolk 92
Misereres, St. David's Cathedral . . 93, 94
Scandinavian Clay Vessel . . . . . . . . . . . 95
xiv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Modern Egyptian Clay Vessel . . . . . . . . . 97
Bronze Statue of Louis XV. by Bouchardon, showing
internal Iron-work and Core 99
The same, showing distribution of Ducts and Vents . . 101
Wrought-iron Gates, St. Lawrence, Nuremberg . . . 103
Wrought-iron Fender, Tongs, Fire-dog and Shovel, Bruges 1 03
Wrought-iron Altar Screen, St. Thomas's, Salisbury . . 104
Wrought-iron Balustrade, Rothenburg, from a sketch by
R. Phene Spiers * 105
Lady at a Hand Loom, from Erasmus's "Praise of Folly"
(1676) . , 107
Diagrams showing the principle of the Loom . . . . 107
Persian Carpet (South Kensington Museum) . . . . 109
Embroidery 114
Facsimile of a page from the " Buch von den Sieben
Todsiinden " (Augsburg, 1474) 117
Hans Baldung Griin, facsimile of a page from " Hortulus
Animse" (Strassburg, 1511) . 118
William Blake, "A Cradle Song" 120
Ceiling Motive, Wall-paper designed by Walter Crane . 124
Ceiling Papers, designed by Walter Crane . . . 125, 126
Repeating Pattern Wall-paper, designed by Walter Crane 127
Pattern Plans and Motives controlled by conditions of
Position and Purpose 129
Floor Motive, sketch design for inlaid wood, by Walter
Crane 130
Drop Repeat Wail-papers, designed by Walter Crane 132, 134
Page Plans, showing various arrangements of Text and
Decorations ... . . . . . ... . . 137
Page from " The Glittering Plain " (Kelmscott Press) . 139
Page from Spenser's " Faerie Queene " (Walter Crane) . 140
Thirteenth Century Glass from the Sainte Chapelle, Paris
(South Kensington Museum) . . . . 142, 143, 145
Sixteenth Century Glass from Winchester College Chapel
(South Kensington Museum) . . . . . . . . 147
Thirteenth Century Glass Grisaille, Salisbury Cathedral . 151
Cartoons for Glass, showing lead design, by Ford Madox
Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152, 153
Modern Glass, designed and executed by J. S. Sparrow . 157
Porch of Cathedral of S. Jacopo, Pistoia . . . '. . . 165
Primitive Egyptian House, after Viollet le Due . . . 168
Column from Temple of Luxor . 169
XV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Persian Capital, influenced by Primitive Timber Con-
struction 170
Lotus Capital, Philae 171
Frieze in coloured and glazed Bricks, Palace of Susa
(from the Reproduction in the South Kensington
Museum), drawn by W. Cleobury .173
Holy Carpet of the Mosque at Ardebil (South Kensing-
ton Museum) . . . . 177
Arab Casement from Cairo (South Kensington Museum),
drawn by W. Cleobury iSi
Carved stone lattice Window from the Mosque of the
Palace of Ahmedabad *&3
Portion of the Alhambra, drawn by Gustave Dore . . 187
Old House in Tumov, dated 1816 i&8
Street in Eger l8 9
Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Tomb of Beni Hasan (XlXth
Dynasty) *9S,
Altar with Offerings, Egyptian Mural Painting, Thebes . 196
Egyptian Wall-painting (British Museum) 197
Assyrian Tree of Life I 9^
Assyrian Bas-reliefs (British Museum) . .^ . 199, soo, 201
Assur Beni Pal, Assyrian Lions from the British Museum 203
Lion modelled by Alfred Stevens and cast in iron . . . 205
Greek Stele or Head-stone 206
Indian Flame Halo or Nimbus . .^ . . 207
Persian Pomegranate forms, from a goat-hair Carpet
(South Kensington Museum) , 208
Celtic design, from a Cross at Campbeltown, Argyllshire 209
Typical ornamental Forms in Persian, Indian, and Chinese
designs : - 2I *
Arabian Fourteenth Century carved and inlaid Pulpit,
Cairo (South Kensington Museum), drawn by W.
Cleobury 2*3> 2 *5
Panel in carved and inlaid Wood, from the Mosque of
Tooloon in Cairo, Fourteenth or Fifteenth Century
Saracenic . - 217
The Fylfot or Sauvastika^ and its incorporation in orna-
ment 224
Primitive Symbols, Sun, Fire, Water . 224
Polynesian Carved Ornament, from Hervey Island Paddle 225
Polynesian Ornament Evolution of the Zigzag . . . 227
Hindu Symbol of the Universe . ........ 229
xvi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Examples of Egyptian Symbolism 231
II Nilo (Rome, Vatican) 235
Venus and Paris the Apples of the Hesperides (from a
relief at Wilton House) 237
Christian Emblem: Stags Drinking (Mausoleo di Galla
Placidia, Ravenna) 240
Christian Emblem : Peacocks and Vine (Sarcophagus,
St. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna) 241
Fra Angelico, Angel (Uffizi, Florence) .... 242, 243
Orcagna, Fiends from " The Triumph of Death," Fresco
(Campo Santo, Pisa) . , . . , 245
Combat of King with Griffin (Ancient Persian Sculpture,
Persepolis) 247
Typical Forms of Shields and of Heraldic Treatment . 249
Sicilian Silk Tissue, Twelfth century (South Kensington
Museum) . 251
Alciati's Emblems, designed by Solomon Bernard, Ex
Bella Pax i , Fortune, Ambition, Avarice 253, 254, 255, 256
Prehistoric Graphic Art of the Cave Men .... 260, 261
Egyptian Treatment of Birds (from painted Mummy
Cases, British Museum) 264
A Fowler, Wall-painting, XlXth Dynasty (British Museum) 265
Japanese Graphic Art (from "The Hundred Birds of
Bari") 266, 267
Egyptian Scribe, Portrait Statuette, Vth or Vlth Dynasty
(Louvre). 269
Sculptured Frieze discovered in the Forum, 1872 . . . - 271"
Atixerre Cathedral, Fourteenth Century Sculpture . .272
Amiens Cathedral, Thirteenth Century Sculpture . . .273
Statue of St. Martha (St. Urbain, Troyes) . . . . ' . 275
Memling, " Deliverance of St. Peter" (Grimani Breviary) 276
Mernling, "David placing the Ark in the Tabernacle"
(Grimani Breviary) . 277
Albert Diirer, " The Apocalypse " ,-.,,. . . 279
Albert' Durer, Portrait of Erasmus (1526) ... . . 280
Albert Diirer, "The Cannon" (1513) . . . . ... 281
Albert Diirer, The taking down from the Cross (" Little
Passion") ...... . ....... 283
Hans Burgmair, Group of Knights from "The Triumphs
of Maximilian " . . . . . . . . .' . . . 284
Horned Poppy, from Fuchsius' "De Historia Stirpium"
(1542) ;< ....... 287
xvii b
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Japanese Plant Drawing .- - 28 2 9
Brass of Joris de Hunter and Wife (Bruges, 1439) . . 291
Brass of King Eric Menved and Queen Ingeborg of Den-
mark (Ringstead, 1319) 2 93
Charles Keene, Drawing from " Punch " 295
Linley Sambourne, Drawing from "Punch" .... 297
Phil May, Drawing from c < Punch " 299
Simone Memmi, Fresco containing portrait of Cimabue
and Contemporaries (S. M, Novella, Florence) . . 307
Giotto, Portrait of Dante (Pretorian Palace, Florence) . 309
Giotto, Frescoes (Arena Chapel, Padua) . . . . 310, 311
Giotto, Frescoes (Assisi) 3 12 > 3*3
Niccolo Pisano, Pulpit (Baptistery, Pisa) -315
Orcagna, "Triumph of Death," Fresco (Campo Santo,
Pisa) 3*7
Benozzo Gozzoli, Frescoes (Riccardi Chapel, Flor-
ence) 318,319,320,321
Botticelli, Detail from " The Adoration of the Magi "
(Uffizi, Florence) 3 2 3
Botticelli, "La Prima Vera" (Academy, Florence) . . 325
Mantegna, Bronze Monument (S, Andrea, Mantua) . . 327
Mantegna, " The Triumph of Julius Caesar," from Andrea
Andreani's woodcut 33 x
Leonardo da Vinci, "The Last Supper" (Milan) ... 335
Leonardo da Vinci, Study for the Head of Christ ... 337
Bust of Michael Angelo (S. Croce, Florence) .... 339
Michael Angelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel ("The
Creation of Man ") . 34 1
Michael Angelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel . . . . 343
Michael Angelo, The Delphic Sibyl (Sistine Chapel) . , 345
Michael Angelo, Tomb of Giuliano de Medici (Florence) 346
Michael Angelo, Tomb of Lorenzo de Medici (Florence) 347
Natural variation in Repetition of Ornamental Forms
Primary School Children drawing on the blackboard,
Philadelphia ....,,.. . . . . 356, 357
Axminster Carpet Weaving . . 361
Tapestry Carpet Weaving . . . . . 362
Interior of the Atelier of Etienne Delaune, Paris, 1576 . 364
Glass Blowing . . . . . . . . . .. . . . , 366
Interior of a Printing Office, Sixteenth Century, from Jost
Amman ............... 367
Gold-Tooled Bindings, by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson 370, 371
xviii
OF THE BASES OF DESIGN
I._OF THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
WHEN we approach the study of Design,
from whatever point of view, and whatso-
ever our ultimate aim and purpose, we can hardly
fail to be impressed with the vast variety and end-
less complexity of the forms which the term
(Design) covers, understanding it in its widest
and fullest sense.
From thesimplest linear pattern, or bone scratch-
ings of primitive man, to the most splendid achieve-
ments in mural decoration of the Italian Renascence
or, shall we say, from the grass mat of the first
plaiter to the finest Persian carpet : or from Stone-
henge to Salisbury Cathedral the range is enorm-
ous, and were we to attempt to trace, step by
step, the true relation between the diverse and
multitudinous characteristics which such contrasts
suggest, we should be tracing the course of the
development of human thought and history them-
selves.
When we stand amazed in this labyrinth this
enchanted and beautiful wood of human invention
which the history of art displays, we might be
content to gaze at the loveliness of particular forms
there, and simply enjoy, like children, the beauty
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
of the trees and flowers ; gathering here and there
at random, and casting them aside again when we
were tired, without a thought as to their true
significance.
If, however, we desire to find some clue to the
labyrinth something which will explain it in part,
at least, something which will give us a key to the
relation of these manifold forms, and enable us to
place them in harmonious order and coherence, we
shall presently ask:
(1) How and whence they derived their leading
characteristics ?
(2) Upon what basis have they been built up ?
and
(3) What have been the chief influences which
have determined, and still determine, their
varieties ?
Let us try to address ourselves to these ques-
tions, since, I believe/ even if we only end as we
begin, by inquiry, that, in the course of that inquiry,
by study, by comparison, and careful observation,
we shall be able greatly to clear our path, and find
much to help us as individual students and practi-
cal workers in art
(i) The first arts are, of course, those of pure
utility, which spring from the primal physical
necessities of man: which are concerned in the
maintenance of life itself the art or craft of the
hunter and the fisherman, the tiller of the soil, the
hewer of wood and the drawer of water : but seeing
that next to securing sufficiency of food, the efforts
of man are directed towards providing himself with
shelter, both of roof and raiment, and since most
of the arts of the creative sort must be practised
2 . . .' .
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
under shelter of some kind, and that all of them
contribute in some way towards the building or
adornment of such shelter, I think we shall find the
true basis and controlling influences, which have
been paramount in the development of decorative
design, in the form and character of the dwellings
of man and their accessories ; from the temples he
has raised to enshrine his highest ideals these
temples themselves being but larger and more
monumental dwellings to the tomb, his last dwell-
ing-place. We shall find, in short, the original and
controlling bases of design in architecture, the
queen and mother of all the arts.
In asserting this one does not lose sight of the
view that all art is, primarily ', the projection or*
precipitation in material form of mans emotional
and intellectual nature; but, being projected and
taking definite shape, it becomes subject to certain
controlling forces of nature, of material, of condition,
which re-act upon the mind ; and it is with these
controlling forces and conditions, and the distinc-
tions which arise out of them, that we are now
concerned.
Such distinctions as exist, for instance, in the
feeling, the plan and construction -of those patterns
intended to be laid upon the floors (as in carpets
or tiles), and such as are intended to cover ceilings
and walls (as in plaster- work, textile hangings or
wall papers), obviously arise from the relative
positions of floor, walls, and ceilings, and the differ-
ences 'between horizontal and vertical positions ;
and these conditions are necessarily part and parcel
of the constructional conditions of the dwelling
itself.
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
The first shelter may be said to have been the
shelter of nature without art the TREE and the
CAVE, the first homes of man ; although he was
probably not by any means the first animal to hide
among the woods and the rocks, since he had many
and formidable foes to dispute with or disturb him
in possession. It is noticeable that such art as is
associated with this strange and remote chapter of
man's existence on the earth the art-instinct which
impelled the primitive hunter to incise the bone
and stone implements he used with the images of
the animals he hunted is purely graphic, and does
not show any feeling of that adaptive ornamental
quality characteristic of what we call decorative
design, which would seem to belong to a more
highly organized condition of society. "Among
the primitive Greeks," remarks Messrs. Guhl and
Koner in their Life of the Greeks and Romans,
"fountains and trees/ caves and mountains, were
considered as seats of the gods, and revered ac-
cordingly, even without being changed into divine
habitations by the art of man." But, as proving
literally that art springs out of nature, the cave
itself led to a development of architecture, as in
some early Greek tombs where the cave, or cleft
in the rocks, is utilized and added to by masonry ;
or where the rock itself was carved and hollowed,
as in the rock-cut temples of Egypt and India.
To which some trace the origin of columnar archi-
tecture.
The TENT of the Asiatic wandering tribes, and
the wattled and wooden HUT of the* western and
northern, come next in the order of human dwell-
ings, and not only may we trace certain types of
4
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
pattern design to both sources, but it would seem
as if both the tent and the hut, and perhaps the
wagon of the Aryans, had had their influence upon
the more substantial stone structures which suc-
ceeded them. When tribes became communities,
townships were founded, and more fixed and.
settled habits of life prevailed.
Now we may broadly group the principal types
of architectural form and construction in three
DIAGRAM TO SHOW- THE' THREE- TYPICAL' FORMS OF
ARCHITECTURE ||J
principal divisions, following Professor Ruskin,
namely:
1 . The architecture of the Lintel (or column and
pediment).
2. The architecture of the Round Arch (or vault
and dome).
3. The architecture of the Pointed Arch 1 (or
vault, gable, and buttress).
1 Although such a classification may not be quite satisfactory
from the point of view of the constructive and historical archi-
tect, it sufficiently serves the present purpose as regards the
influence of these main types in determining the form and
character and controlling spaces and lines of the decoration,
' 5- :
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
Of the first we may find the simplest type in
Stonehenge ; we may find it in equally massive,
and almost as primitive form at Mycenae, in the
famous Gate of the Lions, remarkable as being
the earliest known example of Greek sculpture :
we may find it more developed in the Greek
temples of ancient Egypt, at Karnac, Thebes and
Philce, and we may see_it in its purest form in
"~~* the Parthenon at
Athens.
The derivation
and development of
the Greek Doric
temple from its pro-
totype of wooden
construction has
frequently been de-
monstrated, and
the tombs in Lycia
furnish striking il-
lustrations of this
close imitation and
perpetuation in
stone of a system
and details belong-
ing to wood; and it is instructive to compare its
features with corresponding parts in the Parthe-
non, and to observe how closely they agree. It
is a curious instance of that love for and clinging
to ancient and traditional forms, that with the art
and all the resources of Athenian civilization, the
both surface and sculptural design, which accompanies them
in ancient, classical, and mediaeval work which it is my object
to trace.
6
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
form and construction of its temples remained
much the same, and may be considered as only
glorified enlargements in marble of their wooden
predecessors, retaining all the characteristic details
of those primitive structures.
By these means, however, qualities of grandeur,
joined with extreme simplicity, subtle proportions,
and sparing, severe, but delicately chiselled orna-.
IMITATION -OF WOODEN
CONSTR.UCT1OH-IM-STOME.-
ment were gained ; which, when heightened with
colour in the broad and strong sunshine of Greece,
seemed all sufficient, especially so when they formed
the framework, or setting, of the most beautiful
and noble sculpture the world has ever seen, as in
the Parthenon.
To this sculpture, indeed, all the lines and pro-
portions of the building seem to lead the eye,
while it remains, whether in pediment, metope, or
" : ,' . ' . 7 '
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
frieze, an essential part of the architectural effect,
and is strictly slab sculpture, or what may be con-
sidered as architectural ornament, for, as I have
elsewhere said, we may fairly consider figure-
sculpture* to have been the ornament of the Greeks :
just as one might say that picture writing and
TVf^sm.^cwmz^w-'i'mmjgK-
ORNAMENTAL LINES IN THE FRIEZE 'OF THE PARTHENON.
hieroglyphic were the mural decorations of the
Egyptians.
These sculptures were evidently designed under
the influence of the strongest architectural and
decorative feeling, and were constructed upon a
basis of ornamental lines. There is a certain
rhythm and recurrence of mass, and line, and form
in them throughout, and they have all been care-
8
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
fully considered in relation to the places they
occupy.
OF TH
-SHOWING- RUTVriON *' PROPORTIONS OF-TH6
IN- &UF* ^
It is to be noted, too, that the sculptures are
placed in the interstices of the construction; that
is to say, not on the actual bearing parts. On
, ' - '. ' 9 . ' : .
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
this point it is interesting to compare with the
earlier forms of pure stone construction at My-
cenae. The lions over the Mycenae Gate are
carved upon a slab of stone placed in the tri-
angular hollow left above the lintel to prevent it
breaking under the great pressure of the heavy
stones used. The triangular hollow may be seen
without the slab in the doorway of Clytemnestra's
house at Mycenae. Here we have an early in-
stance of the interstice left by the necessities of
the construction being utilized as a decorative
feature, significant in its design, showing the pro-
tecting image of the Castle of Mycenae, much in
the same way as we see the family arms sculptured
over the gateways of our English mediaeval
castles.
Returning to the Parthenon, we see that the
same principle is observable in the pediment and
metope sculptures, the frieze of the cella being
really a mural decoration consisting of facing slabs
of marble. The building would doubtless stand
without any of them, as a timber-framed house
would stand without its boarding, or filling of brick
or plaster ; but it would be like a skeleton, or a
head without its eyes much, indeed, as time,
bombardment, ravage, and the British Museum
have left it now.
Before we leave the Parthenon, let me call
attention to one prevailing principle, character-
istic of its design in every part; for though
following throughout the principles or traditions of
wooden construction, no doubt its proportions and
lines were consciously and carefully considered by
the architect with a view to Aesthetic effect. It is
TO
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
the principle of recurring or re-echoing line$ y a
leading principle, indeed, throughout the whole
province of Design, and one on the importance
PAfCTHLNOM,- EASTERN.
-PEDIMENT: SKETCH-TO-
-5HO\V RELATION Of LINES'
and value of which it is impossible to lay too much
stress.
To begin with the pediment. The main out-
line is delicately emphasized by the mouldings of
PARTHENON . AVTRN-
SKETCH TC
SHOW RELATION or
LJNS OF SCULPTURE
OF PDinMT.
the edge, which also serve as a dripstone the
practical origin, probably, of all mouldings. The
groups of sculptured figures within the recess
(which further serve to express the pitch of the
roof) re-echo, informally, in the lines controlling
their composition, as well as in the lines of limbs
12
PARTHEttOM'
ELEVATION
-SnowihG
POftTlOrtof
'PEDtnLMT,
*FR)LZE.AD
COLVMMS'X
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
and draperies, variations of the angle of the
pediment. Thus, the groups of figures, full of
action and variety as they are, are united and
harmonized with the whole building ; while, to
avoid undue appearance of heaviness on the crest
of the pediment and on the angles were placed
anth.emion bronze ornaments.
The cornice, again, is emphasized by mouldings
marking the important horizontal lines of the
building, re-echoed by the lines of the frieze, and
counteracted and braced by the emphatic vertical
lines of the triglyphs, and enriched by the little
dentils below.
Then we corne to the cap of the Doric column.
It is simplicity itself. A thin square block of
marble forms the abacus. The capital is a flattened
circular cushion of marble, rounded at the sides in
a diminishing curve to the head of the column,
which terminates in a horizontal reeding. The
column itself is delicately channelled with a series
of lines which follow its outline, and give vertical
expression to the idea of the support of the hori-
zontal mass above, the column gradually diminish-
ing from base to cap, entasized or slightly swelled
in the middle to avoid the visual effect of running
out of the perpendicular. The Doric columns
spring boldly from the steps without base mould-
ings, the steps repeating the horizontal lines of the
building again, and giving it height and dignity.
The other variants of the Greek style will illustrate
much the same principles in different degrees, and
we may trace the value of proportions, and recur-
ring lines, and different degrees of enrichment
through the other four orders.
14
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
As designers, tjhen, we can at least learn some
very important lessons from lintel architecture
generally, and from the
Parthenon in particular,
and chief est amongst
these are
1. The value of sim-
plicity of line.
2. The value of recur-
ring and re-echoing lines.
3. The value of orna-
mental design and treat-
ment of figures in low
or high relief as parts of
architectural expression.
'T1ARBLE CHAINS-
THtMRE- OF DIONYSUS-'
ATHENS'
4, The value of largeness of style in the design
and treatment of the groups and figures themselves,
both as sculpture pure and simple and as archi-
tectural ornament.
When we come to examine the accessories ot
15
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
Greek life, furniture, pottery, dress, we find them
all characterized by the same qualities in design
as we have just been noting- in the architecture ; the
fundamental architectural feeling seems to pervade
them. A simplicity of line, balance, and reserve
of ornament distinguishes alike their seats and
chairs and tables, caskets, vases and vessels, and
the expressive lines of their dresses and draperies
falling into the lines of the figure give life and
variety, while they contrast with the severity of
the architectural lines and planes.'
Now, so far we have been considering the archi-
tecture of the lintel, and its bearing upon design,
and the qualities and principles we may learn from
it generally.
With the use of the round arch invented, it is
said, by the Greeks, but always associated with the
Romans, who used it quite different effects come
in, with different motives and ideas in design. The
Roman architecture, the round arch, fulfils the
functions of both construction and ornament, on
the same principle of recurrence, or repetition, we
have noticed before ; as, for instance, in the Colos-
seum, where the tiers of round arches which support
the outer wall of the building serve both the con-
structive and decorative functions. With the use
of the arch the arcade becomes a constructive
feature of great decorative value, and takes the
place in Roman and Romanesque buildings, with
a lighter and more varied effect, of the columned
Greek cella. Sunshine, no doubt, had much to dp
with its use, since a covered arcaded loggia, or
porch in front of a building, so frequent in Italy,
gave both shelter and coolness. The use of the
16
COMSTRYCTIVE- & ' DECOFLTVHVE USE
-OF-ROVTS.D-ARCH.-3c PILASTER
-FLAVIAN AnpniTHETvTRE- tCOLOSSEVM)
"RO.TVE
17
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
arch led to vaulting, and to the use of arch mould-
ings, enrichments, and to the covering the vaults
with mosaic and painting, and the vaulting led to
the dome, which, again, offered a splendid field for
the mosaicist and the painter.
The Romans borrowed all their architectural
details from the Greeks, and varied and enriched
them, adding many more members to the cornice
|_UM"
mouldings, and carving stone garlands upon their
friezes, to take the place of the primitive festal ones
of leaves which were hung there, as in the relief of
the visit of Bacchus to Icarius, a Romano- Greek
sculpture in the British Museum.
They (the Romans) fully realized the ornamental
value of colonnades and porticoes, and they used
the column, varying the orders, and translating
them into pilasters freely as decorations on the
facades and walls of their buildings, slicing up the
18
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
peristyles of temples, as it were, for the sake of
their ornamental effect, cutting down the columns
into pilasters, and placing them, with intervening
friezes, one on the top of the other, masking the
construction of the real building, a favourite device
with the Renascence architects.
USE OF DECORATIVE SCULPTURE IN ROMAN ARCHITECTURE :
THE ARCH OF CONSTANT! NE.
Roman architecture may be considered really as
a transitional style. While its true constructive
characteristic is the round arch, every detail of the
Greek or Lintel architecture is used both without
and with the arch, and in the latter case the column
frequently becomes a wall decoration in the shape
of a pilaster, as well as the cornice, and is no longer
made use of, as in true lintel construction, to sup-
19
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
port the weight of the roof. In their viaducts and
bridges and baths they were great builders with
the arch, but, like some modern engineers, when
they wanted to beautify they borrowed architectural
ornament from the Greeks.
Nothing very fresh was gained for design in
these adaptations except a certain heavy richness
of detail in the sculptured cornices and friezes, and
coffered ceilings. The use of the flat pilaster, how-
ever, led to the panelled pilaster with its elegant
arabesque, which was afterwards revived and de-
veloped with such extraordinary grace and variety
by the artists of the Renascence and carried from
Italy westward.
With the round arch, too, several important
decorative spaces were given to the designer, the
spandrel, the panel, the medallion, all of which,
with the frieze, may be seen utilized for the decor-
ative sculpture on the arch of Constantino The
decorative use of inscriptions is also a feature in
Roman architecture, and the dignity of the form
of their capital letters was well adapted to orna-
mental effect in square masses upon their triumphal
arches and along the entablature of their temples.
The Romans, too, brought the domed roof and
the mosaic floor into use, and were great in the
use of coloured marbles; also stucco and plaster
work in interiors, the free and beautiful plaster
work found in the tombs on the Latin Way being
well known; so that on the whole we owe to them
the illustration of the effective use of many beauti-
ful arts, which the Italians have inherited to this
day, though it must be said often with more skill
than taste.
20
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
One might say, generally and ultimately, Roman
art exemplified that love of show, and the external
signs of power, pomp, splendour, and luxury
which became dear as well as fatal to them, as they
appear to do to every conquering people, until
they are finally enervated and overcome as if by
the Nemesis of their own supremacy.
MOSAIC, ST. APOLLINARE IN CLASSE, RAVENNA,
The art of Greece, one may say, on the other
hand, at her zenith represented that love of beauty
as distinct from ornament, and clearness and
severity of thought which will always cling to the
country from whence the modern world derives
the germ of nearly all its ideas.
But when the seat of the empire was transferred
to Constantinople, and Roman art, influenced by
21
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
Asiatic feeling, and stimulated and elevated by the
new faith of Christianity, became transfigured into
the solemn splendour of Byzantine art, the archi-
tecture of the round arch and the dome and cupola
rose to its fullest beauty, and such buildings as
St. Sophia at Constantinople, and St. Mark's at
Venice, with the churches of Ravenna, mark
another great and noble epoch in the arts of
design.
Byzantine design, whether in building, in carv-
ing, in mosaic, or goldsmiths' work, impresses one
with a certain restraint in the midst of its splendour;
a certain controlling dignity and reserve appears
to be exercised even in the use of the most
beautiful materials, as well as in design and the
treatment of form.
The mosaics of the Ravenna churches alone
are sufficient to exemplify this. The artists
seemed fully to realize that the curved surfaces of
the dome, the half dome of the apse, or the long
flat frieze above the arch columns of the nave of
the basilicas, like St. Apollinare in Classe, afforded
splendid fields for a splendid material, the cross
light from the deep-set windows enriching the
effect, and that everything might well be second-
ary to it. The same principle or feeling is seen
in St. Mark's where the architecture is quite
simple, the arches and. vaulting without mouldings,
nothing to interfere with the quiet splendour of
the gold or blue fields of mosaic varied with simple
typical figures, bold in silhouette, placed frankly
upon them, emblems, boldly curving scroll-work,
and inscriptions. The execution, too, is as direct
and simple as the design. Such design and
22 ' .
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
SKfcTCH OF fART Of imCRlOfcOf
decoration as this becomes an essential and integral
part of the architectural structure and effect.
Note the way in which the tesserae are laid (in
2 3
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
the head of the 'Empress Theodora from St. Vitale
at Ravenna, for instance). The cube is used as
^^tft^
^*p*s^ifs|
mmm^
MOSAIC OF THE EMPRESS THEODORA, T. VITALE, RAVENNA,
SIXTH CENTURY.
much as possible, but the cubes vary much in size,
and are set often with very open joints, the cement
24
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
lines of the bedding showing quite clearly, and the
surface of the work uneven, the tesserae being
worked, of course, from the front and in situ, pre-
senting a varied surface of different facets which,
catching the light at different angles, give an extra-
ordinary sparkle and richness to the effect as a
whole. In the head of Theodora the effect is en-
hanced by the discs of mother-of-pearl used for the
head-dress.
In the laying of the tesserae, too, note that the
system is followed of defining the outlines with
rows of cubes, and building up the masses (as in
the nimbus) with concentric rows, as a rule, making
the lines of the filling tesserae follow as far as pos-
sible the line of the boundary tesserae. This, of
course, would naturally result as the simplest and
most convenient, as well as most expressive, method
of laying tesserae, in defining form by means of
small cubes, and is one of the conditions of the
work, and when, as in these mosaics, so far from
being refined away, or concealed, or any attempt
being made (as in later times) to imitate painting,
these conditions are boldly and frankly acknow-
ledged, we see how its peculiar beauty, character,
and the quality of its ornamental effect depends
upon these very conditions.
This principle will be found to hold good and
true throughout all art. Directly, from a false idea
of refinement, or with the object of displaying
mechanical skill, the craftsman is induced to try
to conceal the fundamental conditions of his craft,
and to make it ape the qualities of some totally
different sort of work, he ceases to be an artist, at
all events. The true artist in any material is he
v'. . ' - '.' ' 25 ' , ' ' '
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
who in acknowledging its conditions and limitations
finds in them sources and opportunities of new
beauty, and in being faithful to those conditions
makes them subserve his invention.
After the decorative splendour of the Byzantine
architecture, the Norman work left in our own land
seems comparatively simple and plain as time has
left it, but its remains show its Roman descent in
the doorway and porch of many a quiet village
church, as well as on a greater scale in so many of
our cathedrals, which often illustrate, in a remark-
able way, the transition or growth of one style out
of another, the new evolved from the old.
At Canterbury, for instance, one reads the signs
which mark the transformation of the Norman
building into the Gothic. The first church founded
by St. Augustine was Saxon. This was enlarged
by Otho (938) as a basilica. This again was ruined
by the Danes (1013). The Norman part of the
present building was constructed by Bishop Lan-
franc (1070), on to which was grafted, as it were,
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth century
Gothic which distinguish it.
There is a tower on the south side of the transept
known as Anselm's Tower (from Bishop Anselm,
one of the Norman builders), and on the lower
part runs an arcading of interlacing round arches,
the tower itself being richly arcaded in several
stones in round arches. But this lower band shows
the period of transition, from the use of the round
arch, to the pointed the pointed lancet arches
being formed by the interlacing. of the round, so
that we have here the actual birth of the pointed
arch (at least, as a decorative feature), which leads
26
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
us to our next typical division and characteristic
epoch of architectural style.
ANSELM'S TOWER, CANTERBURY.
We need not go out of our own country to find
abundant illustrations of typical forms of pointed
architecture. Almost any village church will give
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
us the main features the characteristic plan of
nave and chancel, curiously following the plan of
the ancient Roman basilica the public hall and
law court in one, and perpetuating for us the^type
of ancient dwelling or hall which may be said to
have prevailed from the time of Homer to the end
of the Middle Ages, varying^ chiefly in external
features and architectural detail.
The severe lancet arch is characteristic of the
first phase of the Gothic, which gradually grew out
of the severer Norman. The gable took a higher
pitch, and to support the weight and thrust of
towers and spires, buttresses were used, and these
became, also, a striking and characteristic feature
of the pointed arch, which completed in the thir-
teenth century the period of its first development.
Lancet arch, high-pitched gable, buttress (plain
and pinnacled), spired and pinnacled tower these
are the leading constructive exterior characteristics,
the carved work, somewhat restrained, and chiefly
manifested in peculiar foliation of the capitals and
corbels, and in the hollows of arch mouldings in
rows of sharp cut clog teeth.
In the interior clustered shafts took the place of
the solid round Norman piers, rising, as we see in
our cathedral naves, to support lofty vaulted roofs,
the ribs moulded and covered at their intersections
by carved bosses.
Again we may note the principle of recurring
lines which repeat and emphasize the form of the
arched openings and the structural lines of ^ the
vaulting in the mouldings. This recurrence gives
that effect of extraordinary grace and lightness
combined with structural strength which is so strik-
2-8
TRANSITIONAL ARCAPS 5OUTH TRANSEPT, CANTERBURY.
29
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
FORKS' OF' ARCHES
'SEMICIRCULAR- -7RAN$rroN- - POINTED
POINTCD -CUSPD- * OG
A A A
TYPICAL
- OF
GOTHIC
- RIC-
i
(Ruski'n]
ing a characteristic of thirteenth century Gothic
work, and of which there is no finer example than
the nave of Westminster Abbey.
" 30
WESTMINSTER ABBEY: THE NAVE, LOOKING EAST.
3 1
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
We noted that the Greeks used the interstices
of their construction for their chief decoration, their
figure sculpture, and to some extent the same plan
is followed in Gothic architecture, where we find
the tympanums of doors, the spandrels of arcades
(as in the Chapter House at Salisbury or the angel
choir at Lincoln), and canopied niches (as at Wells),
used for figure sculpture ; but, at the same time,
the structural features themselves are emphasized^
ornament to a far greater extent, as in caps, arch
mouldings, the junctions of the vaulting, and the
like ; and increasingly so in the succeeding Decor-
ated and Perpendicular periods, until we get vaulted
roofs of fan tracery like those of King's College
Chapel at Cambridge, or Henry VII.'s Chapel at
Westminster.
But if we may say that the chief decorative glory
of Greek architecture was its figure sculpture, as
mosaic was of the Byzantine churches, so we may
say that the traceried window, filled with stained
and leaded glass, became the chief decorative glory
of Gothic architecture.
Unhappily great quantities of glass have dis-
appeared from our cathedrals and churches, from
one cause or another, but from the relics that
remain we may form some idea of the splendour and
quality of the old glass.
The famous windows of the south transept at
York Minster, called "The Five Sisters/' are good
examples of the severer earlier style of pattern and
colour, consisting of fine scroll-work and geometric
forms, in which hatched grisaille patterns are height-
ened by bright points and lines of colour.
Thirteenth century glass, where figures are used,
32
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
is characterized by the smallness of their scale in
proportion to the window, and traces of Byzantine
tradition in their drawing, intricate design, and deep
and vivid colouring, the work being composed of
small pieces of glass leaded together ; the effect of
the jewel-like depth and quality of the colour
deep crimsons, blues, and greens being much
used being increased by the close network of
leading.
As windows, in the course of the evolution of
the Gothic style, were made broader, or rather,
the window opening proper from wall to wall
being greatly increased in width and height, they
were supported and divided into panels or lights
by elaborate stone tracery, a tracery which becomes
almost as distinct a province of design as the
design of the glass itself distinct from, yet in
close relationship to the architecture of the
building*. The comparative slight divisions of the
tracery, however, gave more scope to the stained
glass designer, who shows very emphatic architec-
tural influence in the elaborate canopies which
surmount the figures occupying the separate lights
of the windows from the thirteenth to the end of
the fifteenth centuries, as well as in the general
vertical arrangement of the lines of their composi-
tion. He gradually increased the scale of his
figures and gave more breadth to his design, and
brought it more into relation with the art of the
painter and the sculptor, at the same time acknow-
ledging with them, in the disposition of his figures
in the space, and the disposition of the draperies
and accessories, that architectural influence under
which the artist and craftsman of the Middle Ages
34
WESTMINSTER ABBEY, FAN TRACERY IN HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL,
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
35
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
worked with extraordinary freedom and fertility
of invention, and yet in perfect harmony 1 - a sign
of that fraternal co-operation and the effect of the
formation of men into brotherhoods and guilds,
which, coming in with the adoption of Christianity
and the organization of the Church, remained
through all the turbulence and strife of the time
the great social force of the Middle Ages,
It seems to me if we wish to realize the ideal of
a great and harmonious art, which shall be capable
of expressing the best that is in us : if we desire
again to raise great architectural monuments,
religious, municipal, or commemorative, we shall
have to learn the great lesson of unity through
fraternal co-operation and sympathy, the particular
work of each, however individual and free in
artistic expression, falling naturally into its due
place in a harmonious scheme. Let us cultivate
our technical skill and knowledge to the utmost,
but let us not neglect our imagination, sense of
beauty, and sympathy, or else we shall have
nothing to express.
Through the thirteenth century onwards to the
fifteenth Gothic architecture continued to develop,
to pass through new phases, to take new forms,
a living and growing style moving with the wants
and ideals of men.
After the Early English comes the Decorated
period, in which the mouldings and foliation become
fuller, broader, and more ornate. To contrast
decorated foliation and ornament with the earlier
work, is like comparing the opening flower with.
1 As I recur to the subject of glass design in Chapter IV,
illustrations are given there.
36
THE FIVE SISTERS OF YORK, THIRTEENTH CENTURY,
D6TAILV OF ToMlV _ wir2<.MO.ftA CK. *33
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
the bud. The ogee arch was invented, the crockets
of the pinnacles and canopies grew and increased
FOURTEENTH CENTURY CANOPIED TOMB, WINCHELSEA CHURCH.
became finer in form, the finials larger and
more varied. The carved canopies and tabernacle
work grew richer and more intricate. The foliage
followed nature more closely. The figure subjects
39
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
of the carver were more freely treated, and dealt
oftener with common life, with phantasy, or humour.
The effigies of knight and lady, .or priest, became
more and more like portraits in stone or alabaster,
the details of their dresses more rich, delicate,
and beautiful. The maker of brasses showed a
freer and more masterly hand, and greater sense
of ornamental effect
in the spacing and
treatment of his
figures. The work
of the miniaturist
and the scribe grew
more and more de-
licate and exquisite
in form, colour, and
invention. The
stained glass worker
increased the scale
of his figures, and
varied the quality
and treatment of his
colours. The glazier
invented new "lead
patterns ; the wood carver revelled in stall work,
screens, and misereres. The recessed and cano-
pied tomb enriched the chantries of churches and
cathedrals.
Beauty and invention of extraordinary fertility
and richness characterized every form of art and
handicraft associated with Gothic architecture. We
can trace in each variety the architectural influence
in every department of work. In some instances
reproduction of actual architectural details and
40
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
characteristics, as, for instance, when the wrought-
iron railing of a bishop's tomb (at Wells Cathedral,
1464-5) reproduced the battlement, buttress and
pinnacle as motives, giving them, however, a free
and fanciful rendering suited to the material.
Abundant instances may be found of the fanciful
treatment of architectural
forms in furniture, textiles,
in painting and carving, and
metal work the canopies
over the heads of figures in stained glass, and in-
closing figures upon brasses, are. instances shrines
and caskets in the form of arcaded, and buttressed
and pinnacled buildings, seats and chairs with
canopied or arched backs, carved bench ends with
" poppy head" finials and arched and foliated
panels, censers in the form of shrines. The large
gold brocaded stuffs used as hangings or coverings,
and represented in miniatures and pictures of the
41
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
period. Very beautiful specimens are to be seen
in the pictures of Van Eyck and Memling for
instance.
In all these things we find a re-echo, as it were,
of the prevailing foliated forms of Gothic archi-
tecture, repeated through endless variations, the
CARVED BENCH-ENDS, DENNINGTON CHURCH, SUFFOLK.
controlling and harmonizing element throughout
the design work of the Gothic periods, the form
by which all seem to be harmonized and related,
as the branches are related to the main stem, and
as the plan of the tree may be found in the vein-
ing of the leaf.
42
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
The fourteenth century saw the development
of a new phase of Gothic called Perpendicular.
It is found united with the Early English and
Decorated, as well as Norman, in nearly all our
cathedrals.
At St. David's, for instance, there is a remark-
able instance of a late
Perpendicular timber
roof, richly moulded and
carved, with pendants,
covering a Norman nave
of 1 1 So. Yet the effect
is fine, and one feels glad
that the restoring archi-
tect could find no author-
ity for a Norman stone
vaulting, otherwise we
might have lost the rich
timber roof for a modern
idea of a supposititious
Norman vault. The
sketch (from the south
side of the choir at Can-
terbury, p. 45), too, shows
how harmoniously struc-
tural lines of different BROCADE HANGING, FROM THE
rural lines 01 amerent ANNUNCIAT10N BY MEML1NG .
periods compose.
The chief characteristics of the late period of
Gothic (Perpendicular) are a lower pitched arch,
an elongated shaft, many clustered ; caps and
bases angular ; ribs of vaulting richly moulded, or
the vault covered with fan-like foliation in late
examples, as in Henry VI I /s Chapel. Pinnacles
begin to take the cupular form, details become
43
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
smaller, windows grow larger and are transversely
divided by transoms or horizontal bars of stone,
ST. DAVID'S CATIIKDRAT.
connecting and solidifying the many vertical mul-
lions.
A certain refinement of detail and line with
a feeling for emphatic horizontals and verticals
44
STRUCTURAL
L1H6S OF
P1R1OD5 W
HARMONIOUS
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
comes in ; and this feeling may be the indication
of a reaction, as if the constructive and imaginative
faculties of man were beginning to prepare for the
next great change that was soon to sweep over
the art of Europe.
It might be said that gradually from that time
architecture, as the supreme organic and control-
ling influence in the arts of design, gave up her
prerogative of leadership, and since has rather
been on the whole displaced in artistic interest
by the other arts ; or rather, with the change of
the principle of organic growth out of use and
constructive necessity in architecture for those of
classical authority, archeology, or learned electi-
cism, the different arts, more especially painting,
began an independent existence, and, with the other
arts of design, may be said to have been more in-
dividualized and less and less related both to them
and to architecture ever since, reaching the extrem-
est points of divergence perhaps in our own days.
It seems to me that, on the whole, there can be
little doubt that architecture and the arts of design
generally have suffered in consequence ; and to
bring them back to healthy and harmonious ac-
tivity we must try to re-unite them all again upon
the old basis.
I will terminate here my short sketch of architec-
tural style and its influence, not attempting now to
follow it in its later changes and adaptations to
the increased complexities of human existence.
My purpose has been rather to dwell upon the
organic and typical forms of architecture, in my
endeavour to trace the relationship between it and
the art of design generally.
THE ARCHITECTURAL BASIS
That relationship appears to me to consist chiefly
in the control of constructive line and form, which
all design, surface or otherwise, in association with
any form of architecture is bound of necessity to
acknowledge as a fundamental condition of fitness
and harmony. Those essential properties of the
expression of line, as they now seem, which give
meaning and purpose to all design, appear to be
derived straight from constructive necessities and
the inseparable association of ideas with which
they are connected ; as, for instance, the idea of
secure rest and repose conveyed by horizontal
lines, or the sense of support and rigidity suggested
by vertical ones may be directly traced to associa-
tion with the fundamental principles of architectural
structure, to the lintel and its support, to the laying
of stone upon stone, and with this clue we might
trace the expression of line through its many varia-
tions.
47
CHAPTER II. OF THE UTILITY BASIS
AND INFLUENCE
NEXT to the architectural basis influence in
design, and, indeed, hardly separable from
it, being another side of the constructive, adaptive
art, we may fitly take the Utility Basis and influ-
ence.
This may be considered in two ways :
(1) In "its effect upon pattern design and archi-
tectural ornament through primitive struc-
tural necessities.
(2) In its effect upon structural form and orna-
mental treatment arising out of, or suggested
by, functional use.
(i) It is a curious thing that we should find the
primitive ornamental motives bound up with the
primitive structures and fabrics of pure utility and
necessity, but such would appear to be the case.
The plaiting of rushes to make a mat was prob-
ably one of the earliest industrial occupations, and
the chequer one of the most primitive and universal
of patterns. If we look at the surface effect of the
necessity of the construction, the crossing of one
equal set of fibres by another set. at right angles,
with the interlacement, a series of squares are pro-
duced, which alternate in tint if the colour of one
set is darker than the sets which cross it (see illus-
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
tration). Emphasize this
contrast and we get our
chequer, or chessboard pat-
tern, which, either as a pat-
tern complete in itself, as in
plaids and tartans, or as a
plan, or effect motive in de-
signing is, as I have said,
perhaps the most universal
and imperishable of all pat-
terns, being found in asso-
ciation with the design of all
periods, and still surviving
in constant use among* de-
. i'O.- s
signers.
Let us follow the primitive
rush mat a little further, how-
ever. As it lay on the primi-
tive tent or hut floor its
edges would take the sort
of form shown on the following page. In ancient
Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, and Greek architec-
ture we constantly find carved patterns used as
borderings and figures, of the type given in the
-Assyrian example. Now, comparing this with the
primitive matting, the suggestion is very strong of
the probability of derivation of motive of patterns
of this type from the same constructive source
originally. In some instances (as on the enamelled
tile from Assyria, the border reverses itself, but
with the Greeks it finally took the upright direction,
as in the Anthemion or honeysuckle border forms ;
but, however afterwards varied and enriched by
floral form, its structural origin in plaited work is
49 E
MATTING.
PRIMITIVE KUS.H.MAT AND ASSYRIAN BORDER,
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
always to be traced, and it seems to gain from it a
certain strength and adaptability.
Another type of ornament may be traced to the
constructive necessities of wattle and wicker work,
so. much used by primitive man in the structure of
his dwellings, and in primitive objects of use and
service.
The various forms of volute, or spiral, and guil-
ASSYRIAN ENAMELLED TILE.
loche ornament, so much used by the ancients
Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek may be compared,
in their structure and arrangement of line, with the
form taken by the withy, or cord twisted around
the upright canes or staves of a wattled fence, as
seen in horizontal section. The primitive wattled
structure gives the plans of these patterns. It cer-
tainly appears to account for their origin in a re-
markably complete way.
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
It is possible that another source which may have
contributed to the evolution of the Greek spiral or
GREEK ANTHEMION ORNAMENT.
WATTLED FENCE.
volute was metal in the form of the thin beaten
plates with which the primitive Greeks covered
5 2 .
^ UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
parts of their interior walls ; but these were later
times, and it is also possible that the primitive
ANCIENT VOLUTE ORNAMENT.
metal worker took his motive from the wattling
too.
Before metal was used, or nails or joinery were
known, the -method of fastening two things together,
53
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
such as the blade of a stone axe or hammer and
its handle, was by thonging or tying them firmly
together by strips of leather or thongs, and to this
source again we might trace other types of pattern
motives of very wide prevalence. In the first in-
stances the thonging was imitated in metal- work
when no longer used in the construction by way of
ornament, as in various bronze implements exist-
TYPES OF DECORATION DERIVED FROM THONGING.
ing ; but later, starting from the tying and thonging
motive, we get all sorts of variations, as in the zig-
zag of Norman arch mouldings, and in the earlier
Celtic knotted work, which seemed partly a re-echo
of some types of Eastern and classic ornament,
unless we regard it as independently derived, like
them, from primitive structure. It seems to make
itself felt again in a new variety in the strap-work
of our Elizabethan period, in which the ornament
54
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
apparently was a new blend of Gothic with classical
details, with an infusion of oriental or Moorish
feeling, filtered through Italy and Spain.
Of
As an instance of architectural ornament, the
motive of which seems taken from a piece of com-
mon every-day usage, we may note the frieze of the
Roman circular Temple of. the Sibyl at Tivoli,
which is composed of the heads of oxen, alternating
55
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
with, and connected by, the curves of pendent floral
garlands. To this clay in Italy almost anywhere
one may see this motive suggested by the appear-
ance of the country ox wagon as it approaches
along the road the front view of the two oxen
heads, with the level yoke across their necks, and
the pendent connecting ropes hanging between.
It is probable, however, that whatever its origin,
its suggestion was sacrificial, since the ox decked
with garlands constantly figures in classical sculp-
ture led before the altar to be slain, and this cir-
cumstance may equally have given rise to the
sculptor's motive, just as we saw that the custom
of decking the cornice of the Greek house with
garlands suggested its perpetuation in stone carv-
ing by the classical architects.
It will be noted that those primitive sources to
which we may trace motives in ornamental design,
however, afterwards developed on purely orna-
mental lines, and because of their ornamental
value, all of them have their beginnings in actual
use and service, in physical and constructive neces-
sity, and that they are closely associated with the
form and character of the dwellings and temples
of man.
(2) Turning now to the second division of our
subject to consider "the effects upon form and
treatment of surface arising out of, or suggested
by, functional use," we shall still have to keep
close to the dwelling, and constantly to remember
the ever present architectural influence with the
consideration of which we set out.
The angle of the pitch of the roof in buildings,
for instance, which is so marked a characteristic in
56
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
the different types of architecture, was originally
determined by the necessities of climate. One
might say broadly that the acute, high-pitched
BARGE BOARD
IOMTH
House*
TYPES OF Q7VBLES
Gothic roof means snow or bad weather, while the
low-pitched classic roof means sunshine for the
most part ; or we might say that the one typified
winter and the other summer. A house must still
be built mainly for one or the other, though by
57
THE UTILITY BASIS AND < INFLUENCE
ingenuity and careful consideration of the points
of the compass in choosing the site and planning,
in the rare instances where free choice is still
possible, something may be, and has been attempt-
ed, to fit all seasons ; and it is this careful con-
sideration of such points in our ancient buildings
say the old English manor houses, built to dwell
in and to last which gives that sense of homelike
comfort and pleasure to the eye, perhaps, quite as
much as the interest of their ornamental detail.
A sunny garden terrace or arcaded- front to the
south to catch the winter sun cool and shady
rooms to the north for the summer a sheltered
porch to protect the guest against the weather.
Such contrivances as these show that thought has
been spent and care taken in the planning and
building ; that the builder or designer has been
influenced by considerations of true utility not in
the bald and more modem sense of mere money
or time saving appliance, but the truer economy
of making a house livable. Here is a sketch of
one of those old stone halls or manor houses of
Derbyshire of the seventeenth century (Hazelford
Hall), charmingly placed upon a hillside, so as to
fit into or become part of the landscape, while it is
really planned to live comfortably in, with clue
regard to the variation of the seasons and the
winds. The living rooms face south and west.
Houses nowadays seem more built to sell than
to live in (at least permanently), since I notice
that often even when people build a house for
themselves they constantly want to let it to some-
body else. I should think that the gipsy van
would suit modern habits exceedingly well. It
58
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
would be more picturesque than " a brick box with
a slate lid," to which most of us are committed,
and probably much less expensive in the long run.
The only thing required to make it practicable on
any scale is a trifling alteration in the land laws.
The origin of mouldings in architecture, as their
use in the capacity of dripstones declares, was to
serve a purely useful purpose the alternating
concavity and convexity of the members which
generally characterize them affording escapement
for the rain water, and keeping it away from the
windows and doors.
To give a simple illustration of the principle.
If the sill of a window, for instance, be left rect-
angular and perfectly level, the water would be
likely to run inward through the window, or
perhaps into the wall, but if sloped on the upper
surface and hollowed beneath, the water would
59
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
tend to drop from the under outer edge clear of
both window and wall.
This necessity led to motives in design and
SECTION TO SHOW ACTION OF RAIN
ON WINDOW SlLLS(i;PLAIN fr /*\OuLDDfZ)
ornamental effect, and mouldings became valuable
parts of aesthetic expression in architecture, afford-
ing means of emphasis, of giving the effect of
receding planes, and of using the important principle
of recurring lines to which I called attention in the
first chapter.
60
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
The barge-board, too, so picturesque a feature
in old timbered houses, had the same useful pur-
pose to subserve in keeping the weather from injur-
ing roof and wall.
Staircases with the necessary handrail, again,
have led to beautiful form in design, not only in
the planning of the staircase itself, which is so
important a feature in every house, but in the
interesting and varied design in the balusters sup-
porting the handrail, and in newel heads, etc.
Towers and church steeples, which form such
important and picturesque features in architectural -
(and, one might add, landscape) design, owed their
existence, in the first place, to the necessities of
watch, guard, and defence, and probably also
means of .communication by signals.
To the mediaeval city, which, as it is now being
realized, was a highly organized arrangement for
mutual aid and defence, towers were of great im-
portance both for watch and defence. They served
as strong buttresses and vantage posts placed at
61
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
intervals along the inclosing city wall, and flanking
the gateways. The boldness and grace of design
in some mediaeval towers is very notable. Those
of Siena, for instance, and that town of towers,
San Gimignano, of which I give a rough sketch to
show the effect from a distance of the clustering
towers, like a crown upon the hill top ; above all,
perhaps, is the famous tower of the Signoria or
Palazzo Vecchio, the old city hall of Florence
(thirteenth century). The Belfry of Bruges (thir-
teenth century), too, is another fine instance of
boldness and grace of design. It had formerly a
spire, which is shown in a sixteenth century picture,
the background of a portrait by Pourbus, a Flemish
painter, but the spire was twice destroyed by fire,
and was not renewed a third time. But even as
it stands the belfry is very striking, and, while it
commands a vast prospect of the country round, it
is also conspicuous all over the town, and a land-
mark to the flat country round about.
The towers of our own ancient village churches
are generally battlemented, and the square ones
often have a corner turret to give a more command-
ing view ; and this again gives variety, and is a
very picturesque feature. The battlements them-
selves (though intended for use in defence) are
extremely ornamental features, and give relief and
lightness to the parapet In later Gothic times
they were frequently fancifully pieced and filled
with ornament, as on Magdalen Tower at Oxford.
Their decorative value was perceived by the wood
carver of the Gothic times, and they are con-
stantly introduced in tabernacle work, screens, and
furniture, where their use is purely decorative.
62
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
Chimneys, a-
gain, afford an
instance of a
purely useful and
serviceable object
lending itself to
ornamental treat-
ment and becom-
ing important as
parts of the de-
sign of a building.
The first chim-
ney in England is
said to be the one
existing in the
Norman house at
Chri s tc hurc h,
Hampshire. The
common practice
was to have the
fireplace in the
centre of the hall
and let the smoke
escape by a louvre
in the roof, as may
still be seen in the
hall at Penshurst
Place in Kent
(fourteenth cen-
tury) ; but in later
times, especially
in the Tudor pe-
riod, the chimneys
of brick are often
TOWER OF PALAZZO VECCHIO, FLORENCE.
6;
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
found full of invention and variety in design, and
extremely rich in effect. I give sketches of some
characteristic examples at Framlingham Castle
and Leigh's Priory.
The fine old brick chimney stacks one finds
among the old farmsteads of Essex it is supposed
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
were built first and then the half-timbered house
built around the brick stack.
CUT BRICK CHIMNEYS, LEIGH'S PRIORY, ESSEX.
Other useful things connected with the fireside
and the chimney corner, which are remarkable for
65 F
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
their adaptability in ornamental design, are the iron
fire-dogs used to support
the burning logs. We find
them in great variety of
shape and treatment, while
their main or necessary
lines remain the same. It
is the standard or upright
front part which affords
a field for the inventive
craftsman and designer.
The fire-irons, too, are
again purely useful in their
object, but have become
highly graceful and elegant
in some of their forms.
The iron grate back (not-
ably those of old Sussex),
placed at the back of the
fire against the chimney to
protect the brick-work and
radiate the heat, had again
a purely useful function,
but it has been the object
of a great deal of fine and
rich decorative design,
chiefly of a heraldic or
emblematic character, and
many old examples exist.
Cast iron has in modern
times acquired a bad name
BRICK CHIMNEY, FRAMING- (artistically speaking), but
HAM CASTLE. g
plication, as in railings or grills, where it endeavours
66
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
to usurp the place of wrought 'iron. In a flat panel
or plain surface, such as a grate back affords, how-
ever, cast iron has a singularly good effect, and
renders bold designs well. There are some fine
heraldic grate backs in cast iron to be seen at
Cheetham's Hospi-
tal, perhaps the
most interesting
building in the City
of Manchester.
I give a sketch
of a quaint cast-iron
chimney back of
Gothic design from
Bruges. At the
Museum at the old
Rath Haus there is
a very good collec-
tion of examples.
Somehow, with the
modern, or rather
mid-Victorian iron
register fireplace all
beauty and interest
of design is lost.
Though it should
be remembered that
a really fine artist
and designer^ like Alfred Stevens spent his talent
upon such things.
The conception of the thing, however, seems
joyless and ugly, and in most surviving examples
the ornament in endeavouring to be elegant be-
comes frittered and mean; and as to sheet-iron
67
CAST-IRON FIRE-DOG. ST. NICHOLAS
HOSPITAL, CANTERBURY.
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
stoves they seem to be under a ban of hideousness,
which seems sad when one recalls the charming
and cheerful earthenware stoves of Germany of
Gothic and Renascence times, full of colour and
CAST-IRON GRATE BACK.
invention. The revived use of tiled chimney, and
recessed and basket grates, has done much to
restore cheerfulness to our hearths.
Before we leave the chimney corner I might
mention another bit of metal, important before the
days of kitchen ranges as the chief cooking ap-
68
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
paratus, I mean the iron crane that is sometimes
found still suspended in the wide chimneys of old
farmhouses, made of wrought iron, twisted and
curled, and with bright bosses of steel upon it,
and great in hooks and hinges. Here is a sketch
of a typical example in an Essex farmhouse.
Considerations of use, again, very evidently con-
trol design in lamps and candlesticks. A lamp
necessitates : (i) a reservoir for tke oil, and (2) a
neck and moutk to hold the wick, and (3) a firm
and steady stand. All these requisites are combined.
with addition of handle, in the oldest and simplest
form of lamp the portable antique lamp to be
carried in the hand. The reservoir is there, though
small, and needing re-filling from a larger vessel
(as was the case in the parable of the ten virgins).
These lamps were often placed upon the top
of slender fluted tripod stands, to give light in
60
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
the house, or hung In clusters by chains from a
branched stand like a tree. A combination of
many of the characteristics of the antique lamp is
found in the comparatively modern brass Roman
lamp (now called antique, but till within a few
years, and I believe still, commonly used by the
people) : we have the small reservoir, with four
necks for the wicks, closely resembling in form
the antique hand lamps. This is pierced by the
shaft of the stand, which finishes in a ring handle
at the top and terminates in a broad moulded
stand, so that the lamp can be used for carrying
or standing with equal facility. The little imple-
ments for trimming, snuffing, and extinguishing
are suspended by small chains from the neck of
the standard and add to the ornamental effect.
Each part is made separately and screws together.
With the modern powerful lamps of mineral
oil and circular wicks, much larger reservoirs are
required, and modern lamps have tended to take
the urn shape owing to this necessity, and they
lose in beauty of line generally as they gain in
body (much like people). A satisfactory type has
been introduced by Mr. W. A. S. Benson, of
copper, with a copper fan-like shade, which is
generally a difficulty with a modern lamp; and
the glasses also, while necessary, complicate the
design and cannot be said to add to the beauty, as
a rule. (See Illustration, p. 77.)
However, a lamp design can never get away from
the primitive triple conditions of lamp structure
with which we saw in its earliest form reservoir y
neck for the wick> and stand possibly handle but
within these demands of utility there is scope for
70
^ UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
very great variations, and unlimited taste and in-
vention.
The candlestick, with which the hand lamp has
something in common, is, however, quite distinct
in character, seeing that it is formed to hold the
combustible part in a solid, instead of a liquid form.
Its requirements, therefore, are a firm stand (like
the lamp), a reasonable height, on which to raise
the light, another to hold the candle, and something
to catch the melting grease.
These conditions are satisfied in the form of the
antique brass candlestick, but still better in the
older Gothic form, or the church candlestick, which
has a spike on which to hold the candle, instead of
a hollow. A candlestick, therefore, should be true
to its name and remain a stick, or moulded tubular
column, though capable of development into the
candelabrum, throwing out branches for extra lights
from the central stem ; a suggestive form, if suffi-
ciently restrained, designed with taste.
The ancient hanging brass candelabra of the
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries,
or earlier, are very good in form as well as practical.
There is a fine Gothic one in Van Eyck's picture
in the National Gallery, "Jan Arnolfini. and his
Wife."
I have a good example of the later type a
German one. The stem is surrounded by the
double eagle, and there are several tiers of mould-
ings, the larger ones being flat, and cut into notches
at the edge to serve as sockets to receive the cor-
responding part of the branch, which fits on to them
and supports the candles. These are arranged in
two tiers of six lights each, and between each light
73
1
DETAILS OF CHANDELIER
PLAN OF LIGHTS.
Q
nETHOD
OFFIXINQ
BRANCH.
CANOLG
75
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
occurs a little ornamental branch or finial, the whole
being detachable from the hanging stem terminat-
ing in a brass sphere which keeps it straight and
steady. It is a fine example of good, simple, and
practicable design, which should always unite
necessity and utility with beauty.
For carrying about, a candlestick needs the
addition of a broad dish-like stand and handle,
while the stick itself is kept low ; hardly so attract-
ive a form as the stationary columnar table candle-
stick, and yet having decided character and purpose
of its own.
Those old-fashioned and most picturesque com-
panions of candlesticks, the snuffers, are often very
beautiful in design, and it seems to me that, how-
ever " improved," the wicks of modern candles still
require some attention from them.
The necessity of protecting light affords in lan-
terns opportunities for the inventive adaptability
of the designer in glass and metal.
I met with a very pretty and original motive in
a German museum (at Lindau) which was hexag-
onal in form, pieces of glass fitted together by
leads forming a globe-like body to hold the light,
and terminating above in a neck, from which it
hung to a bracket by a ring. It was furnished with
a tripod stand in iron, so that it could be taken
down and made to stand if needed.
There is plenty qf room for invention in lanterns,
and it seems a pity that our street lamp, which is
practically a standard lantern, should remain so
extremely prosaic, when it is a design so constantly
repeated. It is not so much the plainness, since
one needs no extraneous ornament if the purpose
76
?R1J*\1T1V BRASS
LAM.P
(HOLLAND.)
77
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
is well served by a structure of good lines. The
necessity of cleaning the glass is probably a hin-
drance to much variety of form in the present state
of things, and then, too, the electric light is coming
into general use, bringing with it an entirely fresh
set of conditions, so that before we get our ideal
gas-lamp the necessity for it will probably have
disappeared altogether, so to speak.
The idea of suspension and absence of rigidity
or weight associated with electric lighting ought,
one would think, to be suggestive to designers, but
we don't seem yet to have quite shaken off the
conditions of gas tubing on the one hand, or to have
got much beyond the somewhat well-worn idea of
bell-flowers bursting into incandescence on the
other. One almost prefers the naked simplicity
of the little pear-shaped glasses, with their incan-
descent twist of thread suspended at the end of the
covered wires, to the flamboyant excesses in brass
and copper electric fitting sometimes seen.
One might go on through the whole range of
objects of domestic use, and multiply instances of
beauty and designing invention applied to the
humblest utensil, implement, or accessory, and sug-
gested by the characteristic features stamped upon
its form by the necessities and demands of daily
use, which must never be lost sight of by the artist.
Not a single thing that we touch or use but has
had an enormous amount of human thought and
ingenuity brought to bear upon it, which has de-
termined its form as we see it, and which is con-
stantly modifying form and material and character.
The present modifying influences, the direction
in which human ingenuity mostly seems to work
78
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
is in the time-saving, cost-saving, labour-saving
direction, or would-be so, and under this influence
designs of articles or objects of pure utility have
a tendency to become very prosaic or, perhaps,
vulgarly assertive. It is the commercial instinct,
no doubt, which is satisfied if a knife is a knife
and will cut, or at any rate will sell, and puts no ro-
mance into either blade or handle. The old curved
blades have disappeared, and only the silver knife
receives any ornament, and that generally of a very
uninteresting type. This prosaic tendency repre-
sents the mechanical side of the utility influence,
which only reaches beauty, if beauty of line merely,
by necessity of use ; though under what I should
term the short-cut inspiration beauty is generally
entirely out of the question. This is to be deplored,
since the simplest thing of use may be just as
well made pleasing and good in form and line,
though that may be the only kind of beauty possible
to it.
When we come to pottery the utility and adapta-
tion to service influence is very obvious. Look at
the form of a water- vessel, a pitcher we will say,
as a typical form. It must have a large hollow body
to hold as much water as can be conveniently
carried by a single person, but not more than its
handle or handles will lift. It must have a neck
for pouring out. A rounded form is found to be
more convenient for carrying than a square, and is
easier to balance in the hand or on the head. The
soft clay, too, readily takes the circular form on
the wheel when the pitcher is formed under the
hands of the potter ; and the rounded form may be
diminished towards the base, which saves weight,
79
THE UTILITY 'BASIS AND INFLUENCE
and at the same time gives opportunity for grace
of line. Its form at once expresses its purpose of
carrying and pouring. A nobler form is seen in
the Greek hydria a large three-handed water-
vessel, adapted for carrying and pouring. It was
carried on the head or the shoulders, the two side
horizontal handles enabled it to be lifted up and
down, while its vertical handle served the function
of pouring.
We may note the similarity in contour and pro-
portion of the Greek amphora or wine-vessel, to
the lines of a woman's figure. It is, perhaps,
the most graceful of the antique forms of vessels,
and it seems dimly reflected even in the purely
prosaic form of the modern bottle.
We might trace through all the various forms of
vessels the clue of utility, and note how it deter-
mines their typical form as they are adapted, like
the hydria or pitcher, for carrying and pouring:
the amphora or ancient wine-bottle for keeping wine
cool in the earth in portable quantities : the bucket
type for dipping and carrying : the funnel type for
filling.
The copper water-vessel of the Roman people
seems to combine the functions of bucket and
pitcher in a highly picturesque way, and its form
enables a quantity to be carried on the head.
The drinking vessel again shows quite a different
type of form, and in all its varieties declares its
function the cup, the glass, the tumbler, the mug,
and the tankard.
In the bottle we approach again the type of the
pitcher, the holding and pouring functions being
again emphatic, throughout all its many shapes.
80
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
COIttARioNJ Of THE UNES OF A
FMAt.e FiOURE ?* THQSe OF AN
AMPHORA
DISTILLERS
Copp.
PEASANT
VVITH COPPER WATER VE55EI. .
The illustration shows a selection of the typical
forms I have mentioned.
The subject of the typical forms of vessels is
81 G
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
very clearly illustrated in Meyer's " Handbook of
Ornament/' to which I may refer the student who
wishes to pursue the subject further.
On the subject of bottles, however, I will just
GERMAN BEER MUGS.
refer to a curiou * correspondence in design motive
in two different materials.
The ordinary Italian oil or wine flask is one of
the most charming of modern useful vessels. It is
simply a piece of blown glass of the form first
assumed by the molten glass when blown at the
end of the glass- worker's tube. To make this
82
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
primitive but elegant bottle portable and enable it
to stand, it is bound around by a twist of rushes, or
cane leaves twisted into a circular stand, and
braced by vertical broader bands of the untwisted
leaf at intervals, and a loop of the twist is twined
around the neck, and left free to hang up or carry
the vessel in. The whole is both highly practical
and picturesque.
^ This is a type of Venetian glass bottle or decanter
highly ornamented, in which the fundamental mo-
tive or idea of the protecting binding of rushes
seems to be followed in glass. The melon-like
divisions are defined by strings of raised glass laid
on the surface, while the panels between are
engraved in arabesques of leaves and birds, and
the whole forms a very pretty piece of ornate glass
design. (See illustration, p. 83.)
Here we have another instance of decorative
motive derived from useful* function, and of the
adaptation in one material of a suggestion derived
from another, though applied to the same type of
form.
I have not mentioned the plate or dish type of
vessel, which has on the whole, perhaps, received
the most attention from the decorator of surfaces,
perhaps on account of the more pictorial conditions
its functional form presents.
There is a circular flat or concave surface in the
centre of the dish, plate, or plaque to hold the food ;
and there is a circular space or rim for the hand,
a border which will serve both as a frame to the
central subject, and also to emphasize the edge.
The Greek cylix, though really a shallow drinking
cup, presents similar conditions to the designer,
85
UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
though more of the shallow boat or saucer type,
and in the filling of these spaces the Greek vase-
painter, as far as regards composition of line,
dramatic action of figure, simplicity, and the ne-
cessary flatness and reserve, sets us the best models
in this kind of design.
The Italian Renascence majolica and lustre
ware give more sumptuous effect and more pictorial
treatment, but are not nearly so safe a guide in
taste as the Greek.
In pure ornament we cannot do better than
study oriental models for the treatment of border
and centre, and in the blue and white ware of China
and Persia we shall find as satisfactory examples
of decorative fitness as need be. The Chinese
influence is freely and often very happily rendered
in the blue and white ware of Delft, and in some
of the works of the old English potteries, as
Worcester and Derby for instance.
In textile design the functions of border, of
field or filling, of wearing apparel, or furniture
hangings and materials and their necessary adapta-
tion to vertical or horizontal positions, differentiates
the vario].ts types and classes of design in woven
or printed stuffs. Here use again influences and
decides decorative motive.
We recognize at once the essential differences
of expression in different pattern plans and systems
of line in horizontal extension, which mark them
off as suitable for borders demanding linear, or
meandering, or running patterns to fulfil their
function of defining the edge, as in 1 a garment or
hanging, or in pottery, or forming a setting for the
centre, as in a carpet.
86
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
For these reasons, bearing in mind the construct-
ive suggestion of their origin, the typical examples
HANDLC
OF TM P17\T
DCLFT
DISH-
CH uses e. PLT\TC
given of border systems have held their own from
the earliest times as fundamentally adaptable to
87,
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
horizontal extension, while they also adapt them-
selves to endless variation in design and treatment.
Just as, for the same reasons, the systems of
pattern adapted for indefinite extension over a
surface (both vertically and horizontally), and re-
presented by the plans I have termed persistent,
have held, and still hold, their place in the world
of design. These latter, too, it will be noticed,
are all constructed upon, or controlled by, the same
basisthe rectangular diaper.
There seems something fixed and fundamental
about these linear constructive bases of pattern
design from the point of view of what might be
termed decorative or linear logic, and apart from
their origin in actual constructive necessity before
spoken of, and, as far as soundness of principle
can guide us in designing, we cannot go wrong in
obeying them, however various the superstructure
of floral fancy we may build upon them. The
acknowledgment of the principle alone, of course,
will not make us successful designers, any more
than the skeleton makes a living figure. ^ We can-
not do without thought, fancy, and vivifying im-
agination, guided by the sense of beauty, as well
as of use, to produce design worth having in any
direction.
To trace out this clue of utility fully and ade-
quately through all the varieties of the vast pro-
vince of artistic design would need, not a single
chapter, but a large and amply illustrated volume.
I have only attempted to call your attention to cer-
tain typical forms and instances where the bearings
of the necessities of use and service have decided
those forms, and must always influence the decora-
88
I. TYPICAL BORDER SYSTEMS. 2. PERSISTENT PATTERN PLANS,
RECTANGULAR BASIS.
89
THE UTILITY BASIS AND INFLUENCE
tive. designer, who should never forget them for a
moment.
Nothing has degraded the form of common
things so much as a mistaken love of ornament.
The production of things of beauty for ordinary
use has declined with the gradual separation of
artist and craftsman. Decoration, or ornament,
we have been too much accustomed to consider as
accidental and unrelated addition to an object, not
as an essential expression and organic part of it ;
not as a beauty which may satisfy MS in simple line,
form, or proportion, combined with fitness to pur-
pose^ even without any surface ornament at all.
The more we are able to keep before our minds
the place and purpose of any design we have to
make, the more we realize the conditions of use
and service of which it must be a part, as well as
the capacities of the material of which it is to be
made ; and the more we understand its constructive
necessities, the more successful our design is likely
to be, and the nearer we shall approach to bridging
the unfortunate gulf which too often exists between
the designer and the craftsman.
CHAPTER III. OF THE INFLUENCE
OF MATERIAL AND METHOD.
WE have seen (i) that architectural considera-
tions lie at the basis of design and control
its general character, its scale, and relationships ;
and (2) that utility determines and specializes its
particular forms and functions ; now, as our third
proposition, we may say that, in addition to these
in limitation of material and methods of workman-
ship, we shall find the influences which determine
primarily the purely artistic question of treatment
in design, and which differentiate its classes and
varieties.
If we look at a piece of stone-carving and com-
pare it with a piece of wood-carving, for instance,
or, still better, take mallet and chisel in hand and
experiment upon a piece of stone or marble, and
try to evolve or to express a form by these means,
and with a chisel, or knife, work upon wood we
shall soon find that the differences of the quality
of the two substances upon which we work the
differences of density, toughness, resistance to
the tool at once demand different methods of
handling each. Short, quick following strokes in
the case of chiselling stone, and a longer, steady
sort of pushing or driving movement, the chisel
91
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
being held in both hands, in the case of wood:
carving*. From such necessary and fundamental
differences the artist would soon develop a distinct
style in the treatment of each kind of work. He
would not attempt to make the stone look like
92
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
wood, or persuade the wood to look like stone ;
but he would rather rejoice in their fundamental
differences of quality, and make his work in each
emphasize their essential and distinctive character-
istics. These different characteristics are shown
in the design and treatment of the carved stone
corbel given, as compared with the misereres in
wood ; the stone-work being also controlled by
the necessity of the jointing in the masonry.
WOOD CARVING. MISERERE, ST. DAVID'S CATHEDRAL.
In handling soft materials, like modelling clay,
for instance, we encounter quite a different set of
conditions. There is much less restriction of
material and method, although the plasticity of
the clay brings its own difficulties of manipulation
with it. Modelling, indeed, it is soon perceived,
is the reverse of carving, since in carving form is
produced by cutting away, in modelling form is
produced by building up (or adding to) ; surface
being gained in the first case by delicate chiselling
of sharp tools upon a close-grained, tough material,
93
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
and in modelling by a delicate pressure of the
fingers, or tools, upon a soft and sensitive clay. .
Clay modelling, again, not being a final form,
but rather a preparatory stage in design, bears to
bronze, or plaster, much the same relationship as
a design or drawing on paper for reproduction by
a particular process bears to its finished form in
the material for which it is intended. Clay has, it
it is true, after firing, a permanent form in terra-
WQOD CARVING. MISERERE, ST. DAVID'S CATHEDRAL.
cotta, which of course thoroughly illustrates the
freedom and naturalism of treatment of which it is
capable; on the one hand associating itself with
domestic use and adornment, kindred with the
work of the painter, and on the other uniting itself
with architecture, and being adaptable to all kinds
of enrichment upon brick buildings.
The adaptability and plasticity of clay, again,
is shown in what might be called its fundamental
capacity as thrown upon the potter's wheel. H ere,
94
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
under the steady revolution of the horizontal cirr
cular disk, or wheel, controlled and held in its
place by the left hand of the potter, while he
manipulates and varies the form with the right,
we see how readily the clay obeys the law of the
circular pressure and movement, and how, in
SCANDINAVIAN CLAY VESSEL.
obedience to it, every variety of form which the
history of pottery displays becomes possible to it
in the hands of a skilful and tasteful craftsman.
Manual skill of a very accomplished kind is de-
manded in throwing, as anyone may see for himself
by trying to form a vessel upon the wheel, simple
95
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
as the operation looks, controlled by a purely
mechanical movement. Then, in addition to
dexterity in manipulating the clay and skill in
forming the vessel truly, and of an even thick-
ness, there is room for any amount of artistic
judgment and taste in deciding the final form, or
section, which the vessel shall take ; and again, in
the design and use of such ornament as shall ex-
press its form and office, or give it an additional
decorative surface beauty.
With the use of ornament, indented while our
clay is soft, or with raised moulding and edges, or
low relief work, we are still carrying out the
fundamental suggestiveness of the material and
what may be called its natural method ; and we
find that ornamentation upon pottery in its earliest
development took the form of indented zigzag
borders and patterns, and to this day in some
kinds of German pottery, and that known as Ores
de Flandres, we find the patterns indented in out-
line and filled afterwards with the blue colour and
glazed ; the modern Egyptian red clay pots are
ornamented with indented, cut, and raised patterns ;
while in the homely brown jug of our English
potteries, we see the application of the principle
of relief work in the quaint figures stamped upon
the surface, pleasing enough, though without any
reference to classic dignity or proportion.
There is a good instance of the pleasant use of
stamping the pattern upon a clay vessel in this
German pitcher from Rothenburg (see p. 87),
bought from the workshop of the potter himself,
who made the pots of the local clay, fired them,
and glazed them himself, and finally was his own
96
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
salesman an instructive combination of functions
not often found in our own country.
With wax, modelling can be carried to a greater
degree of fineness and sharpness of detail, especially
MODERN EGYPTIAN POTTERY.
upon a small scale. It is a material, therefore,
which lends itself to modelling for bronze and
other fine metal castings, to metals and coinage,
as well as to small figures, lamps, various vessels
. 97 H
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
and ornaments; and also to large scale, highly
finished statues, especially when intended -to be
cast by the cera perduta or lost wax method, by
which the molten metal from the furnace is made
to flow into the mould, to take the place of the
wax of the model, the wax of course ^melting and
flowing out through the vents contrived for the
purpose. -.
The figure is modelled in the usual way in clay
first. Then a plaster piece-mould is taken, and
into the inside of this, when taken off,, the wax is
pressed, so as to line it completely. A framework
or skeleton of iron bars having been constructed
to support the weight, the hollow niould inside
the wax lining or skin, which represents the thick-
ness of the bronze statue, is then filled up with a
core composed of brick-dust and plaster, mixed In
a paste and poured in. The ducts to enable the
molten bronze to flow properly into the mould are
then arranged, with vents for the escape of the
melted wax and air. The plaster piece-mould is
then carefully taken off, and the statue is disclosed
in wax. This wax surface can then be finally
finished by the modeller before the whole statue
is covered in with another niould made of a fine
paste of bone ash and Tripoli powder and other
ingredients. It is then bedded in earth or sand,
and the bronze, being mixed and melted in the
furnace is run out into the ducts of the mould ;
when cool the mould is broken off, and, the bronze
taking the place of the wax which is melted and
escapes, the statue is. complete.
Thus a complete and perfect casting is obtained
of the work, it being only necessary to stop the
98
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
places where the ducts and vents were fixed, which
by ingenuity could be arranged to occur in the
JROK SUPPORTS
BRONZE STATUE OF LOUIS XV. BY BOUCHARDON, SHOWING
INTERNAL IRON-WORK AND CORE. 1
less important parts. Cera perduta, as its name
1 From Mr. George SimoncTs article on " Casting in Bronze."
"English Illustrated Magazine," 1885.
99
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
indicates, is an old Italian method, and was used
by Benvenuto Cellini. It has been revived by
Mr. George Simonds, who has given an account
of it, and by our younger school of sculptors,
Messrs. Alfred Gilbert, Onslow Ford, Harry Bates,
and others, in place of the method of casting with-
out the use of the wax, which entailed a great deal
of surface work and chasing upon the hard bronze,
so that the delicate modelled surface the touch
of the artist, in short was lost, but it is just this
which is preserved by the lost wax process, so that
it is a method which favours artistic modelling,
since it perpetuates it in bronze with greater pre-
cision than by the ordinary method, and does not
require after touching in the hard.
In iron-work we have another strictly conditioned
kind, in which design owes its character and pecu-
liar beauty to the necessities and limitations of the
material and mode of working. I am speaking of
wrought iron, and of the forms in which it is usually
found in grills of all kinds, in gates, and railings.
Now we may consider that the designer in iron has
a material to deal with which is capable, under
heat and the hammer, of obeying much invention
and lines of grace and fancy. We start with a
bar of iron ; we plan our main framework ; we may
use rigid verticals and horizontals in forming our
grill. A simple square trellis is the fundamental
grill, but we seek more play and fancy. Our iron
bar is capable of being twisted at its ends into
spiral curves under heat, with the pincers, (or even
without, if thin). It is also capable of being beaten
out with the hammer into flattened leaf forms,
which again, by heating, can be worked and
TOO
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
BRONZE STATUE OF LOUIS XV. BY BOUCHARDON, SHOWING
DISTRIBUTION OF DUCTS AND VENTS. 1
elaborated, and parts joined by welding. 'in great
1 From Mr. George Simond's article on " Casting in Bronze."
'"English Illustrated Magazine," 1885.
IOI
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
variety of form. But we may consider primarily
that the designer in iron starts with the bar, the
spiral curve, and the flat leaf, or even only the first
two. These are his units out of which he constructs
his pattern; his pencils are the hammer and pincers,
his easel is the vice, his medium is the forge. His
business is to make a harmony in iron, and these
are his notes, his treble and bass. His success
will depend, firstly, upon the effectiveness with
which he contrives to meet the fundamental pur-
pose of the grill or gate, that it shall be a sensible
and practical grill or gate to begin with ; secondly,
his lines and curves, however simple, must be har-
moniously arranged, so that the eye is satisfied
at the same time as the constructive sense ; and
thirdly, any invention or play of fancy which he
can super-add without injuring the first two con-
siderations will be so much to the good, and to his
credit, and the common pleasure.
It is. well, however, to test our powers by simple
problems at first. If we cannot combine a great
variety of attractive forms harmoniously, and fit
them to useful purpose, let us try what we can do
with few and simple forms. If we fail at constructing
gates of Paradise let us see if we cannot make a
good railing. If we cannot invent a romantic
knocker, let us try our hands at an effective scraper.
It is much better to do a simple thing well, than
a complex or ambitious thing badly; and there is
far more need in the world for well-designed and
beautiful common things than for elaborate excep-
tional things.
A study of iron-work should be useful to all
students in design, as showing what ornamental
102
THE -IRON WORKERS-UNITS
WROUGHT-
IRONWORK'
PORCH -SAT6S
FE.NDE.R.' WITH TONGS
-BRUGES*
103
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
effects can be gained by economy of means, the
effectiveness of simply repeatingwell-chosen curves,
spirals, and lines ; as well as the amount of fantasy
and feeling- which an inventive designer and
craftsman can put into such work in its more com-
104
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
plex and elaborate forms, and, above all, how
perfectly it may be' made to unite serviceableness
and beauty ; while, perhaps more conspicuously
than most kinds of artistic work, it illustrates the
VRQN -
essential unity of material and method with their
results in design.
The illustrations given exemplify different varie-
ties of treatment, and also show how design in iron-
work, in addition to the influence of the material,
is controlled by the spirit and period of the archi-
tecture of which it becomes part.
105
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
We see this in comparing the free Gothic and
rather fantastic forms of the gates of the south
porch of S. Laurence at Nuremberg with the
symmetric and formal screen from S. Thomas's,
Salisbury (seventeenth or eighteenth century), or
both with the flowing Renascence scroll balustrade
from Rothenburg.
A most important branch of design is that of
textiles, whether we regard it in its close association
with daily life and the wants of humanity, with
domestic comfort, personal adornment, or ecclesi-
astical splendour. It is, perhaps, the most intimate
of the arts of design, and here again we shall find
the control of material and method always assert-
ing themselves.
Textile designing may be broadly divided into
two main kinds : (i) that which is an incorporated
part of the textile itself, as in woven patterns,
carpets, and tapestry; and (2) that which is
designed as a surface decoration to be printed or
worked on the textile, as in cotton, cloth, cretonne,
silk, velvet, and embroidery.
Into the many technicalities and complexities of
the modern power-loom it is not now necessary to
enter ; but the main essential conditions it is always
necessary for the textile designer to have in mind
are that his design has to be produced by the
crossing of threads in the loom, by warp and weft,
as the sets of threads are called the warp being
the vertical threads, forming the web and founda-
tion of the fabric ; the woof or weft being the
horizontal thread woven through it at right angles.
In the simple low warp hand-loom, the warp
being in two sets, the alternate threads are lifted
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107
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
by the heddles alternately. These hedclles are
connected with treadles worked by the feet of the
weaver, who, with his hand, passes his shuttle
with the woof backwards and forwards through the
interstices thus left, and weaves the plain cloth.
To make patterns, various wefts in different colours
are added. This is the fundamental simple prin-
ciple of weaving, which in a still simpler form may
be seen in the making of tapestry and carpets in
the high warp loom, where the threads of the warp
are stretched vertically upon rollers in a framework,
at which the worker sits and works in by his hands
the different colours of the pattern horizontally,
twisting and knotting the threads in through the
warps on which the pattern has been marked, and
pressing it together by a sort of comb to make it
firm and solid ; as the fabric is completed it is rolled
up upon the roller.
Penelope is seen working at such a loom in a
Greek vase painting. The simple hand-loom, as
it was in the seventeenth century, is seen in the
figure taken from Erasmus's " Praise of Folly."
What chiefly concerns the designer in woven
textiles, therefore, is that he must be prepared for
the necessity that his design must adapt itself to
working out upon a square trellis of horizontal and
vertical lines, which will represent his outlines, or
the edges of his masses, in stepped outlines and
edges, where the design crosses the warp diagonally
at any angle, and in straight line's where it runs
with the warp ; since it may be said that pattern
on woven cloth is produced by leaving out, or
stopping out, certain threads in the wefts, disclos-
ing one set in one place and another in another;
.108
PERSIAN CARPET,
NSINGTON MUSEUM.
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
such threads corresponding with the holes cut in
the cards placed in the loom to regulate the pattern,
which are prepared from the design, after it has
been worked out on squared paper to calculated
intervals and numbers of threads or points to each
line and mass of the pattern.
Now, so far from wishing to conceal the char-
acteristic flatness and squareness of outline and
mass, which the nature of the conditions of weav-
ing normally produce, the artist values these char-
acteristics as essential to the work, and would
make his design adaptable to them.
The most beautiful and decorative effects are
produced in woven textiles by the contrast, har-
mony, and blending of coloured threads, wool, or
silk, and the relief of one flat colour upon another,
or one flat tint upon another shade of the same
tint, so that anything like attempts at naturalistic
drawing, and the representation of planes of light
and shade and relief can only be clumsy, owing to
the nature of the conditions, besides being mis-
taken, from the point of view of good pattern-work.
There are no better masters in the selection
and treatment of natural forms in textile design
than the Persians, who, in their magnificent carpets,
show both the extreme of graceful conventional
pattern, and also a happy mean in the treatment
of flowers, trees, and animals, exhibiting in their
drawing and colour definite characterization rather
than naturalism ; translating nature, as it were,
and allying it with invention in a distinct region
of their own. To do this is really what all
designers should aim at, in whatsoever material
they may work.
no
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
When we come to the second division of textile
design, that in which pattern is applied to the
surface of the cloth after it has been woven, by
means of printing, the designer is chiefly controlled
by considerations of scale and beauty of effect, as
he has to adapt his design to various purposes,
such as hangings and furniture coverings, or small
dress patterns, kerchiefs, and so forth. Beyond
the necessary limit of size of repeat and its satis-
factory construction, he is freer than in designing
for woven textiles ; and, in fact, has about as much
range as any other surface designer in colours.
It is considered a practical and economic advan-
tage that a design should adapt itself to printing
in many different schemes of colour, and be capable
of treatment on a light or dark ground. In larger
scale patterns, such as furniture cretonnes, patterns
or parts of patterns are produced by a mordant or
resist ; that is to say, the light parts are printed in
a mordant or chemical preparation which takes
out the dye, and so discloses in those parts the
natural colour of the cotton cloth. Similar effects
can be produced by the reverse method of printing
the cloth first with a resist and dyeing or printing
the whole afterwards.
The methods and machinery of printing cotton
have been carried to great perfection, and the
necessary limitations as to what effects can Qr
cannot be" obtained are very few, what is done being
largely regulated by considerations of cost. These
apparent advantages, however, from the artistic
point of view, expose us to new dangers. We may
easily lose sight of the end in the very perfection
of the means; the -very facility of those means may
in
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
lead the designer to forget that, after all, he is
designing for a textile something which will be
hung in folds, variously draped, or worn. The desire
to show the capacity of the method of printing a
pattern in colours may not always be on all fours
with the wish for tasteful design and reposeful
effect. The fierce competition of trade, and the
violent demands of the salesman, do not harmonize
with the judgment of the artist. If you were in
a company where all were talking at once at the
top of their voices you would have to shout very
loudly if you wanted to be heard, but no one would
contend that these were the best conditions. for
the human voice. It is, however, a tolerably just
simile of the present conditions of trade and their
effect upon design. So long as things are rnacle
primarily to sell, rather than to last and live with,
there will always be this difficulty and disparity
between art and commerce ; but a school of art
can only concern itself with what are the best
methods, and endeavour always to set up the best
types of design, the best standards of taste.
If we want to represent flowers, for instance, in
their natural superficial aspects of light and shade
and relief, the natural form for such renderings is
the still life study ; the natural means, the canvas,
palette, and brushes, or Whatman and water-colour;
the natural equipment, power of graphic drawing
and knowledge of pictorial effect. But, whatever
value, pictorial interest, and charm such studies
may have, as such, with the charm of treatment,
with the freedom of handling open to the pictorial
artist, and with the direct personal touch, the
value, pictorial interest, and charm and beauty
112
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
would be entirely lost if they were done by the
yard, and spread over acres of cotton. The
particular conditions which give value to the in-
dividual pictorial study become utterly lost when
the attempt is made to produce a pattern on the
same principles. It is neither good pattern nor
good painting ; and the very best machine-painting
can only give a more or less coarse rendering of
hand-painting, and it is therefore a mistaken
application of it to try. It requires no special
artistic feeling or training to recognize a bunch of
roses or poppies thrown in exaggerated relief on a
flat surface ; but it does require both to appreciate
a design made of the same flowers, composed and
coloured harmoniously in an ingenious repeat, and
drawn firmly and delicately with an understanding
of the character and construction of the plants, yet
treated with fancy and invention, and, at the same
time, meeting perfectly the nature of the material
and the method of manufacture. These qualities
I should enumerate as the real necessities in de-
signing for printed fabrics, whether it is cotton
cloth printed from the pattern engraved on copper
rollers, or furniture cretonne printed from flat
blocks. In either case, in providing the design,
firmness and sharpness of line would be good, and
precision of touch in laying in the colour.
The embroiderer, again, is comparatively free as
to range of choice in treatment of surface design,
which will be necessarily governed by purpose,
position, and nature of material and method em-
ployed. The bold design and large scale detail
which would be suitable for bed hangings and
curtains in crewel work, such as we find in the
NATURAL- DIRECTION -OF-5TITCHES' IN
.\VORKINO- Lt/WE.S'STMS* FLOWERS
SrFRjuiT.
E- Kt M QNO PR.I NTCD-PATTERN-
'HEICHTENED-WfTH-GOLD'&'SlLK'ErA' "PeRSIAN-^
'-BROIDERY. IN -PARTS-' " 'BOKHARA'
114
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
Queen Anne period, would be obviously out o-i'
place in small panels of delicate fine silk-work.
A greater approach to the colours and surfaces of
nature, too, in silk-work may be attempted, as in
the plumage of birds and the petals of flowers, as
we see in Chinese and Japanese silk embroideries,
though the decorative principle of shading one
colour with other tints of the same should be fol-
lowed when shading is used, keeping the colour
pure and brilliant, and never using black or brown
for shadows on colours.
A certain natural convention, we might say,
belongs to the conditions of material and method
in embroidery, and is inseparable from the art of
the expression of form by stitches. Following
the same principle of such acknowledgment of
necessary limitations which we find hold good in
other decorative arts, the essential stitch method
of the embroiderer should be rather emphasized
than concealed, although it does not follow that in
preparing designs to be embroidered the stitches
need be all represented, so long as the design is
clear and plain, and the outlines distinct ; while in
the choice of the direction of the stitches, as well
as in their form and character, must be found the
particular means of expressing varieties of surface
and characteristics of form. In making leaves,
for instance, one would naturally make the stitches
radiate from the centre towards the point, while
the character of tree stems is well expressed by
carrying the stitches crossways over others laid
vertically first, as, in addition to the suggestion of
lines of bark, the double row of stitches has the
effect of suggesting the projection of a rounded
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
stem. For filling in large masses, or for meander-
ing types of patterns and scroll-work, or bold out-
line, chain-stitch is very useful, and has a compact,
solid effect. It is much used in Indian embroid-
eries. The introduction of gold thread, so much
found in all oriental embroidery, enriches and
heightens the effects of the colours very much,
and on the unbleached linens and muslins, where
the pattern is quite light, it has a charming effect.
The Japanese make very effective use of gold
thread embroidery, in some cases carrying the
whole of the work out in gold upon a dark ground,
or using it as a partial enrichment on printed
textiles such as kimonos or robes ; in other kinds,
notably in dark, rich, full-coloured embroidered
hangings, by introducing disks of gold thread,
formed by stitching the thread down upon the
ground in closely twisted spiral forms, which catch
the light very effectively when hung upon the
wall.
There is, indeed, in the embroiderer's art im-
mense range of both treatment and subject. It
may be light and delicate, and restricted to one or
two colours, or vie ih fulness, richness, and depth
of colour and splendour of effect with tapestry it-
self. It may adorn a child's quilt, or decorate an
altar ; it may touch the hem of a garment, or
inform the cover of a book ; nothing seems to be
above or below it ; and throughout its manifold
adaptations it offers an attractive field to the de-
signer and the worker who is not afraid of patient
but not unrewarding labour.
As further exemplifying the influence of mate-
rial and method, I may just touch upon another
116
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
art, in our days the most popular and far-reaching,
perhaps, of all -the art of design in black and
white for the book and the newspaper.
6t ct(?c bqpmlid) ffbembgt* o&ee
bott fwmpt gcritten /\m& ftgt auff
ante 2Dcomcoati/vn i/l mit gulfcim
angtle^t t)n futt auff tie
l)jlm cine pf flbn/m Sic fcbil t efnen ^&la T|n Dem pana
itn
BUCK VON DEN SIEBEN TODSUNDEN (AUGSBURG, 1474).
Now, the early woodcut as we find it In the
printed books of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies owed its forms and qualities to the necessi-
ties of surface printing with types in a hand-press.
The vigorous, bold drawing with the pen on the
117
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
wood-block was cut by the engraver with a knife
and on the plank, not as now, upon the cross
section of the box tree : softer wood, too, was at
first probably
& auf usec l. The en-
aSSS " knife
Ittide et
left the artist's
fdfdtt" line firmer,
perhaps, than
5 it was drawn,-
and the design
ens; fa a in vigorous
CC102 ol* open u ne was
mtaOMtt A T ,
exactly adapt-
co:da mefta-Salue gtta Dfem:
ie
pressure as
the type had
to undergo.
The two were
in true me-
>jefu0 chanical rela-
. i^~^~ , v** tion, and also
S: E MlE*!?f in true artistic
2W facrariitimi merira fiu'ofk; t B tua le
HANS BALDUNG GRUN, "HORTULUS ANIMAE "
(STRASSBURG, 1511).
relation. The
d e co ra t i ve
effect of the
early printers'
pages is re-
markably fine, and is obtained by very simple
means.
With the decline of the severe and vigorous
drawing of the great designers of the late Gothic
and early Renascence period, and probably also
118
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
with the invention of copper-plate engraving and
printing, and the more rapid production of books,
the art of the book printer declined, and the art of
the book decorator with it ; and although the wood-
cut still held its place, and was largely used for the
next two centuries, and, indeed, down to our own
time, in book ornaments, initial letters, and illustra-
tions, it had fallen into inferior hands.
At the end of last century a sort of revival took
place under Thomas Bewick and his school, which
led, not to a revival of the firm and open linear
drawing of the designers of the early printers, but
rather to a search after extra fineness and qualities
of tone and colour, hitherto associated with steel
or copper-plate. This tendency or aim of the
engravers, however, only served to put the wood-
cut out of relation with the type, and the type
itself grew uglier, and was hardly considered as
part of the artistic character of the book. William
Blake seems to have been the only artist who
made any attempt to consider the necessary re-
lation of ' illustratioMland type, but. he did it by
means of copper-plalte^knd writing his own letter-
ing.
It is only recently that a serious effort has been
made to re-establish the old relationship between
design and text in surface printing and as applied
to books. Our newspapers and illustrated journals
still print heavy black blocks, reproduced from
wash drawings, along with thin pale type; and the
tendency of the recent new photographic processes
of reproducing the designs of artists has rather
been to dislocate the decorative feeling and the
relationship of type and picture aforesaid, by
119
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
imposing no restrictions of material or method
in preparing- drawings for the press. We have
CJkise not slumb er \
t All tke cWelilce mo an lb e^il eH
WILLIAM BLAKE.
now, however, a school of printers and designers
in black and white who do consider decorative
120
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
effect in printing and in the design of the printed
page.
Mr. William Morris, by his personal experiment
and practice of printing, approaching it from the
designer's point of view, has again placed the
printing of books in the position of an art. By
practical demonstration in the beautiful results
of his work in the beautiful books he issued
from the Kelmscott Press- he has shown us what
very fine decorative effects can be got by careful
consideration of the form of the letters, by the
placing of the type upon the page, by the use of
good handmade paper, by the use. of ornaments
and initial letters of rich and bold design, harmon-
izing with the strength and richness of the type
(which makes the ordinary types look pale and
thin). His work, too, is obviously influencing
printers and publishers generally, so that something
like a renascence in printing and in design and
decoration in black and white has been going on
during the last few years.
Certainly a return to the practice of drawing in
line is good, not only as a test of design and
draughtsmanship, and absolutely necessary to all
designers, but also as essential to designs or
illustrations intended to contribute to the decorative
character of the printed page.
In the various instances, therefore, to which I
have drawn attention, we have seen that design in
its many forms and applications must be reconciled
to certain limitations of material and method ; but
that, so far from these limitations being a hindrance
to harmonious expression or to beauty of result,
they themselves, by their very nature, if properly
121
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD
understood and frankly acknowledged, lead to
those very results of beauty and harmonious
expression which come of that perfect unity of
design, material, and method it is the object of all
decorative art to attain.
CHAPTER IV. ON THE INFLUENCE
OF CONDITIONS IN DESIGN
IN the previous three chapters we have been
considering Design under various conditions
of use and material. The present may be consid-
ered as a continuation of the same line of thought
in somewhat different directions.
We may consider conditions in the general
sense as those general aesthetic laws governing the
place and purpose of designs, and their position in
relation to the eye and hand, such as height, plane
of extension, and scale ; or in the more particular
sense which includes all these, as well as more
strict technical conditions which, being accepted
by the artistic faculty, influence the form and
character of all design, the object being, of course,
the attainment of the greatest beauty consistent
with such conditions.
All design is necessarily conditioned, from the
purely graphic and pictorial to the most abstract
forms of decoration. We cannot set pencil to
paper even without committing ourselves to a kind
of compact with conditions. Here is a white ex-
panse a plain surface ; here is something to make
black marks with.
The artistic realization of or presentment of our
thought, or our rendering of a piece of nature or
123
/' . 9
CEILING PAPER.
DESIGNED BY WALTER CRANE.
124
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
of art will depend upon our frank acceptance of the
natural limits of the capacity of pencil and paper
of plane, surface, line, and tint as conditions of
representation, and on our faithfulness to them,
by means of which we shall attain the most truth
and beauty in drawing.
It Is the recognition of this which gives distinc-
CEILING PAPER. DESIGNED BY WALTER CRANE.
tion to all drawing, according to the individuality,
invention, and character of the artist. We recog-
nize his style and personality by his manner of
dealing with the conditions of the work, and no-
where does this come out more emphatically than
when those conditions are reduced to the simplest.
So that in a line drawing in pen or pencil, in the
economy of the means, and in. the skill and mastery
125
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
by which facts of nature, character, life, action, or
beauty of line and ornamental effect are rendered
by the simple use of outline, or tint, or solid
black, we can recognise the artist -of power just as
clearly as we recognize a friend's handwriting.
The suavity and grace of Raphael, the energy
of Michael Angelo, the learning and finish of
CEILING PAPER. DESIGNED BY WALTER CRANE.
Leonardo, the sculptor-like definition of Mantegna,
the firmness and care of Diirer, the breadth and
richness of Holbein ; all these qualities come out
clearly enough in the studies and drawings of these
masters in pen, pencil, and chalk. For beauty of
style, treatment, and decorative feeling in pencil
and chalk, perhaps few come near the studies of
our modern master, Burne-Jones.
126
REPEATING PATTERN WALL-PAPER DESIGNED BY WALTER CRANE
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
In making studies, too, another condition comes
in, important enough in its effects that of time,
In general practice no means to ends are more
useful than rapid sketches and notes of passing
actions and transient effects. In order to seize the
essential facts quickly great economy of means is -
necessary, and practice and experience alone can
teach us facility in selecting the leading points and
most expressive lines. Given a limited time in
which to note facts, the problem is how to set
down the most truth in the simplest and most
forcible way.
The conditions which govern the making of a
sketch or study upon paper are sufficient as tests
of artistic capacity, of draughtsmanship, of taste,
and the other fine qualities which go to the making
of a work of art, having what may be termed an
independent or individual interest and value ; but
in adapting any kind of design to a definite orna-
mental purpose other conditions immediately come
into play over and above those belonging to the
conditions of draughtsmanship alone, conditions
which at once influence the style of draughtsman-
ship and determine the treatment.
Again, everyone who. attempts designs for dif-
ferent kinds of decorative purpose, for different
materials, for different planes of extension, for
different positions and uses, must perceive that
such considerations are important factors in deter-
mining the plan, construction, and spirit of the
design.
The ornamental conditions, for instance, which
govern the design of wall-papers and hangings,
demand patterns which climb upwards and spread
128
B;
iC
D:C
B
;... P._
!A B;A
A
RPAT
C *
B;A B;
|C JDjC D;
. AN'OKDlMAKy-WALll-
0-TERN-KEPEAt
P17VJ1 OF A DROP REPEAT
PATTERTi PJLAHS 2l /MOTIVES
COHTROLLED BY COnDiTlOKS
u OP
- FlEL6*S'HU6LE' TEXHLE-2-SpnvE
POSITION AHD PURPOSE
, --ttfrt
X
M
IVE
\V1TH BOKDESL'
J29
FLOOR MOTIVE. SKETCH DESIGN FOR INLAID WOOD, SOUTH
LONDON FINE ART GALLERY. DESIGNED BY WALTER CRANE.
130
THE, INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
laterally without any apparent effect or flaw in the
repeat. Frieze designs, again, demand horizontal
extension and definite rhythm, which latter is an
important element in all border design.
Designs for extension upon floors and pave-
ments, where the effect of perspective distorts
forms as they recede from the eye, require their
own special planning and treatment, square, circu-
lar, diamond, and fish-scale plans being generally
the safest, as bases, since they preserve their form
in perspective better than irregular non-geometric
or more complex plans.
Much the same kind of considerations control
ceiling decoration, where, in addition, suggestions
may be taken from constructive conditions, as, in
flat ceilings, the design following parallel beams and
joists and their interstices ; the panelled arrange-
ment of a coffered ceiling ; or radiating spring of
lines from constructive centres, as in vaulted ceilings.
Where a pattern will be broken by deep folds,
as in textiles, in hangings, and curtains, the con-
ditions favour the recurrence of bold masses, richer
points, and more strongly defined forms, at intervals,
than would be agreeable in a pattern for extension
on a plane surface, unless we except carpets, where
boldness of form and richness of colour are de-
sirable.
Such conditions as these influence every depart-
ment of decorative design, and in proportion to
the completeness with which they are satisfied will
depend the success of designs ; and a design which
may have less actual beauty, perhaps, than another,
but which completely fulfils the conditions of its
existence, is likely to have a longer life.
DROP REPEAT WALL-PAPER. DESIGNED BY WALTER CRANE.
132
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
The persistence of certain well-known types of
pattern is probably due to this such as the con-
tinual reappearance of the Greek fret in various
forms as a border design in all sorts of work.
Questions of scale in design are less absolute,
perhaps, since, though one may say as a rule that
large types of design and detail belong to large
rooms and large scale buildings, there may be in-
teresting exceptions, when large patterns might
suit even in a small room, if a particular artistic
effect were sought.
The . main condition in the matter of scale
appears to be that we cannot afford to ignore the
average human standard. As we may say that
the human frame itself contains the elements and
principles of all ornamental design, so its propor-
tions and scale control the proportions and scale
of all design. Objects intended for human use
and service are bound to be of certain fixed or
average sizes seats and couches about eighteen
inches from the ground, for instance; ordinary
domestic doors not much over six feet high, and
three feet six inches or four feet wide. The size
of casements, again, is strictly related to the power
of the hand to open them ; while the sizes of all
movable objects of use are in like manner strictly
governed by the average size, height, and strength
of mankind.
Pursuing the influence of such conditions, we
find that there are in every direction natural limita-
tions in every department of design : in the first
place of scale and position in relation to eye and
hand, in the second place of method and material.
Take the page of a printed book, for instance.
DROP REPEAT WALL-PAPER. DESIGNED BY WALTER. CRANE.
134
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
The body of type impressed upon the paper, gives
the proportions and dimensions of the page. The
double page, when the book is opened to show
the right and left hand pages (or recto and verso,
as they are termed), is the true unit, not the single
page.
The type should be placed so as to leave the
narrowest margin at the top and the inside, the
broader on the outside, and the broadest of all at
the foot. And this for obvious reasons, since in
holding a book in our hand we naturally want the
type brought well under the eye, the pages being
set as close together as the necessities, of joining
down the middle will allow conveniently, so that
the eye need not have to jump across a large
brook of margin in travelling from one to the
other, while the deep margin below enables the
book to be held in the hand well set up before the
eye, without touching the type.
I n taking up a book with the intention of decorat-
ing or illustrating it, we must accept frankly these
conditions, which indeed are, properly considered, a
substantial help to the artist, just as the necessities
of the ground plan give suggestions for the eleva-
tion in architectural design. These conditions, we
may take it, are the architectural conditions of
book-page construction.
The size, then, of our page-panel being fixed,
as well as the page of type necessary to the book
(sizes of books are, of course, determined by fold-
ing of the paper folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo,
and so on), we are free to dfeal with it decoratively
in a variety of ways, subject only to the ac-
knowledgment of the essential condition that it ^
'35
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
a book-page, and not a random sheet of paper to
make blots of ink upon or a stereoscope, or a
card-basket, for instance, as some modern treat-
ments of illustration in books suggest.
We may use the whole page for the design,
surrounding it with a line or border. Or for the
sake of richer and more ornate effect, while con-
fining our picture or illustration to the limits of
the type-page, we may use our margin for a decora-
tive framework or border. As also in using orna-
mental initial letters the side borders can beutilizecl
for ornaments branching up and down from the
letter to emphasize the chapter or paragraph, in
the manner of mediaeval illuminated MSS., and
in the way adopted by William Morris in his
Kelmscott Press books.
Or, again, limiting our decoration to the actual
type-page, we may divide the page at the opening
of a chapter by a frieze-shaped panel or heading
across the top, placing the initial letter below ; or
insert a picture in the text, occupying a half-page
or quarter-page ; or at the endingv of a chapter
design a tailpiece to fill the page where the type
ends, treating any space within the limits of the
type-page, which the type does not occupy, as a
field for design, or placing one's pictures and orna-
ments in the midst or in place of the type.
The title-page, again, is capable of an immense
variety of treatment, and great ornamental use can
always be made of the lettering, whether accom-
panied by design or not.
I think, too, that it is obvious that the conditions
of surface printing point to line-drawing as the
most harmonious in effect for book illustration and
136
VERSO
RECTO
BOOK- To-SHOW-PROPoRTlONS-OF-TYPE-PAce (<
KEXr'VSCOTT.pP.ESS-
137
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
decoration, as well as most practical mechanically,
since type and blocks which decorate a page must
be subjected to the same pressure. The form of
letters, too, in movable type, being linear, whether
Gothic or Roman letters, line-drawing is in direct
decorative relation with the type.
In proportion to the solidity or heaviness of the
letters, too, as a general principle, stronger effects
of black and white may be ventured on, while if
the type is light and elegant, finer and more open-
like work would be the most harmonious treatment
With the use of handmade paper, again, upon
which a printed book always looks best, openness
of line is a necessary condition in design work to
be reproduced as surface printing blocks with the
type, since the quality of the paper requires con-
siderable pressure to bring up bright impressions,
and under such pressure (with the grain and rough
surface of the paper, which gives the richness to
the lines and blocks of type or woodcut) fine and
broken lines would print up too strong, and not
look well. Pen or brush drawing, therefore, in firm
and unbroken lines is the most adapted to the con-
ditions in this case because they work and look the
best, and lead to a distinct character and style.
Nothing looks worse, to my mind, than heavy
toned and realistically treated wash drawings used
with a thin and light type, such as we constantly
see in newspapers and magazines.
The facility of the photographic processes for
reproducing drawings of all kinds (as well as the
decline of printing as an art before that, and the
decline of good facsimile engraving), have no doubt
tended to destroy the sense of style and harmony
138
Chapter IL Gvil tidings come to band at Cleve-
land,*?/?
OTT long bad be worked ere be
beard tbe sound of borsc/boofs
once more, and be looked not
up, but said to himself, "It is
but tbe lads bringing bach tbe
teams from tbe acres,and riding
fast and driving bard for joy
of heart and in wantonness of
youth" jJFBut tbe sound grew nearer and be look-
ed up and saw oyer the turf wall of tbe gartb the
'ROM "THE GLITTERING PLAIN," KELMSCOTT PRESS. DESIGNED
BY .WILLIAM MORRIS AND WALTER CRANE.
BOOK/
CATtTC
xir
SACRED hunger of ambitious mindes,
And impotent desire of men to raine!
Whom neither dread of God, that devils bmdes,
Norlawes of men, that common-wealescontaine,
Nor bands of nature, that wilde beastes resrraine,
Can keepe from outrage and from doing wrong,
Where they may hope a kingdome to obtaine :
No faithe so firme, no trust can be so strong,
No love so lasting then, that may enduren long.
Witnesse may Burbon be ,- whom all the bands
Which may a Knight assure had surely bound,
Until! the love of Lordship and of lands
Made him become most faithless and unsound :
, And witnesse be Gerioneo found,
Who for like cause faire Beige did oppresse,
And right and wrong most cruelly confound :
And so be now Grantorro, who no lesse
Then all the rest burst out to all outragiousnesse.
FROM SPENSER'S " FAERIE QUEENE." DESIGNED BY WALTER
CRANE.
I4O
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
in combining text and illustration, since the two
have come to be considered so entirely apart; but
of late years there have been many indications of
a return to sounder taste, which is sure to influence
the printer's and illustrator's art more and more
widely*
From books let us turn for further illustration
to another source of illumination, namely, windows ;
where, in the design of leaded and stained glass,
we shall find examples of another strictly con-
ditioned and very beautiful province of design.
In the course of its historical development
stained glass seems to show much the same or
corresponding general characteristics at different
periods as to style, as may be traced in other
branches of art. The windows of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries were characterized by geo-
metric pattern, and made up of small pieces of
glass, the figure subjects small, set in geometric
inclosures or quatrefoil panels and showing Byzan-
tine influence in their treatment. 1 It may be, too,
that the windows of the early Gothic period were
influenced by the rich mosaic work of the Byzantine
artists, but in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
as windows became larger and more important
features in architecture, and stone tracery enabled
very large openings to be filled with coloured and
leaded glass, both the figures and the pieces of
1 I give some reproductions from photographs of the beauti-
ful fragments from the Sainte Chapelle, now in the South
Kensington Museum, as types of the earlier glass, and from
Winchester College for the later, and two cartoons of Ford
Madox Browfi's as examples of good modern design, showing
leading
141
THIRTEENTH CENTURY GLASS FROM THE SAINTE CHAPELLE,
PARIS (SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM),
142
m*mi^m^z*>v\
&W%^&~w:^sSs'V-l'.l
. ! r I
,*
>i-.i 3 Cir J y :< ' I
%:<.-..::<>-
THIRTEENTH CENTURY GLASS FROM THE SAINTE CHAPJELLE,
PARIS (SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM).
143
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
glass became larger, the general design, more
pictorial, till in the early sixteenth century we get
perspectives and heavily-shaded figures, and large
masses of light and dark, until the art perished in
eighteenth century transparencies.
It perished because the essential fundamental
conditions were ignored or not made important
decorative use of. Leading, instead of being re-
garded as the backbone of the design, its funda-
mental anatomy, and essential decorative as well
as mechanical characteristic, was rather looked
upon as an awkward if necessary interruption in
the picture, and the glass-painter, in endeavouring
to follow the painter on canvas in his effects of
relief and chiaroscuro, lost all the peculiar beauty
and character of his own art without gaining the
distinction of the one he would fain have rivalled. 1
It has only been by artists going back to the
fundamental conditions, and keeping faith with
them, that a revival of glass-painting has taken
place in our time.
Now we might divide design in glass into two
parts :
1. Design in lead line.
2. Design in coloured light.
1 Winston, in his well-known work on glass-painting, a very
good and particular account both of the characteristic liistoric
periods and the methods and materials of glass-painting, says ;
"In the eighteenth century glass was painted with enamels,
very much as canvas is with oil colours, that is to say, in little
patches, and the shadows were not produced merely with enamel
brown, but with deeper tints of various local colours. In this
way the shadows are almost imperceptibly blended with the
lights, scarcely any part of the glass being left perfectly free of
colour, or the marks of the brush."
144
THIRTEENTH CENTURY GLASS FROM THE SAINTE CHAPELLE,
PARIS (SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM).
145 T.
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
Both demand the full light of the sky to do them
justice, but especially the colour work, and there-
fore can only effectively be used for windows
placed high, or above the level of the eye, in the
wall like church windows, for it is only the full
strength of light which brings out the full beauty
and depth which the best work in glass always
possesses ; and in some qualities of glass, indeed,
only full sunlight will discover their inner heart of
jewel-like colour.
Very beautiful effects in window glazing are
produced by patterns formed of plain leads, and
their value has of late been perceived by archi-
tects, who largely use them in domestic work.
Either seen from within or without the effect is
pleasant, and suggests a sense both of comfort
and romance which refuse to be associated with
large blank squares of plate glass and heavy sash
windows, which require a Samson or a Sandow
to lift.
Inside, the effect of large panes of plate glass
is cold. Outside, it forms great holes in the
architecture, but, with the use of leads, if the
opening is large, there need be scarcely any diminu-
tion of light inside, while the network of lead
forms a pleasant relief to the window surface and
unites it by pattern with the architecture of the
building.
The pliant grooved strip of lead, then, is the
glass designer's outline. With it he weaves his
plain pattern, which he can enrich with spots of
colour or by jewels of light in escutcheons and
roundels; and when he comes to planning an
elaborate figure panel he is bound to contrive a
146
SIXTEENTH CENTURY GLASS. FROM WINCHESTER COLLEGE
CHAPEL (SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM).
147
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
well-constructed basis of leading to hold his colour
and form together, and by means of its bold black
bounding lines to define the masses of his pattern,
each different tint of glass being inclosed by a lead
line, and shading, faces, hands, and small details
being added with brush drawing in brown upon
the coloured glass.
Apart from good design, well-planned leading
and colour scheme, nearly everything depends
upon the careful choice of tint in the glass itself,
and immense pains and trouble are well spent in
this way, since beauty of total effect, as well as
particular harmonies, depend upon choice of the
degree, depth, and quality of the coloured glass.
Now glass for colour work, called antique, is
made in small sheets about 22 in. x 17 in. The
sheets of one maker do not exceed 8 in. x 5 in.
They may be classified as tints and whites. These
form the palette of the stained glass artist, and
furnish him with an immense range of tint and
tone from which to select. But these, again, are
divisible into two sorts: (i) what is called />#/-
metal self-colours, or sheets that are of the same
metal throughout; and (2) that known %s flashed,
that is, when a thin skin of ruby, gold, pink, or
blue is flashed upon a sheet of blue, white, pink,
or amber. This flash may be lightened or removed
at pleasure by fluoric acid.
The object of the maker of these small sheets
of glass is to get as much variety as possible, not
only in light and dark, which in the pot-metals is
due to the varying thickness of the sheet, and in the
flashed colours to the varying thickness of the flash,
but in some cases a mixture of two or more colours
148
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
in the same sheet, by which it will be seen that
no two sheets even out of the same pot of metal
are alike. It is the use of this variety and un-
expectedness that are amongst the charms of
stained glass.
We speak of stained glass ', but in reality there is
only one stain, properly speaking; other colours
used on glass are enamels, the real colour being
incorporated in the glass when made (pot- metal
or flashed), and not painted on. This stain is a
preparation of silver, and is mixed with a vegetable
colour, yellow lake, to weaken it. It is principally
used upon the whites to stain diapers, hair, etc.,
and when fixed in the kiln the yellow lake is burnt
away, leaving a slight residue which is easily re-
moved, and the silver is vitrified into the glass,
the depth of yellow being varied according to the
strength of the stain and the susceptibility of the
glass.
In setting to work to design a stained glass
window, it is usual first to make a coloured design
to scale i J inch to the foot is the best.
A window may be composed of one light or of
many, each separate panel inclosed by the masonry
or mullions being termed 'a light. The question
of treatment of subject as a single design extending
across several lights, or as separate panels, must
depend first upon the particular subject, or subjects,
to be treated, then the scale of the window, and the
general character of the architectural setting.
Supposing it is a subject like the Nativity, with
the Adoration of the Magi, it would lend itself to
treatment as a single subject extending across
several lights, and to great richness and splendour
149
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
of colour. The colour design in such a case would
be the most important, but, as I have before said,
it must be perfectly combined with, and built upon,
a well-designed network of lead lines, those lines
forming themselves essential elements in the de-
sign, defining the forms in bold outline, and uniting
and giving value to the masses of colour. For
while we may separate the problem into two parts,
the design of lead lines and colour design, the
window must be conceived as a whole, not merely
as composition in line to be tinted.
Having made our scale sketch, the next step is
to work out the full-sized cartoons, which, of course,
demand more attention to drawing and detail.
Many artists make as many elaborate studies for
figures, drapery, and details as they would for a
highly- wrought picture in oil, or mural painting.
As a matter of fact, however, though any amount
of good drawing and invention may be put into
glass design, it should not be forgotten that beauty
of pattern and effect and symbolic suggestion are
the objects and not pictorial naturalism.
For main definition in the design the essential
lead line is all important. It would not do to
sketch in a figure in a casual way, and. then sur-
mount it with lead lines ; it should be carefully
considered as a piece of bold and massive outline
design.
In leading we may use a bolder line for bound-
ing and defining the main masses, and a thinner
sort for subsidiary fittings ; in this much will depend
upon the scale of the work. The lead, which has
a double groove, may be said to serve several
functions. Its primary office is to hold the pieces
150
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
THIRTEENTH CENTURY GLASS GRISAILLE, SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.
of glass together : it forms the linework of the
design, surrounding the figures and forms, separat-
ing them frorii each other and the background, as
CARTOON FOR GLASS, SHOWING LEAD DESIGN,
BY FORD MADOX BROWN.
152
CARTOON FOR GLASS, SHOWING LEAD
DESIGN, BY FORD MADOX BROWN.
153
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
well as defining the secondary forms, as of drapery
and other detail. Then, too, the lead joints ease
the cutting of awkward shapes in the glass, which
however should be avoided in planning the cartoon.
Again, it may be used to obtain greater variety into
large masses, as a piece of drapery, for instance.
The cartoon being made, the next thing is to
make the working drawing. This is done by laying
a semi-transparent piece of paper over the cartoon,
and tracing merely the lead lines and thus obtaining
the skeleton of the window.
The glass is cut from this drawing, the cutter
cutting the glass just within the lines, thus allowing
for the heart of lead. The same drawing serves
also for the lead worker -to glaze the finished work
upon.
The shapes of the whites and light colours are
seen when the sheets are laid on the drawing ; but
the shapes of the dark colours, through which it is
impossible to see the lead lines, must be obtained
in another way.
The best way is to cut the shape in thin sheet
glass, which is then placed on the dark sheet of
antique glass held up to the light, and moved about
until the most suitable part of the sheet is found.
They are then laid on the bench together, and the
piece of sheet glass is pounced with a small bag of
fine whitening, which, when removed, leaves its
shape on the dark sheet to be followed by the
cutter's diamond.
We now come to the all-important task of select-
ing the glass.
The ordinary trade way of doing this is to
number the outline, which indicates to the cutter
154
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
certain racks correspondingly numbered containing
the different colours. But if it is to be really care-
ful artistic work the designer ought himself -to
select each piece for his work.
The principle and idea of colour in glass design,
dealing as the artist does with pure translucent
colour, is necessarily distinct from those obtaining
in other kinds of painting, such as mural, when
opaque colours and a variety of half-tones are used.
The glass designer does not attempt to shade his
figures and draperies by the light and dark parts
of a sheet of coloured glass. H e desires to express
the jewel-like quality the quintessence of colour
in every piece of glass by the force of contrast,
not in the juxtaposition of dark and light pieces
of one colour merely, but by the bold arrangement
of various colours, having the effect of one, but
with a richness and sonorousness that the single
tint does not possess.
For example, in a yellow drapery we should
take a rich decided yellow as keynote. Obviously
if the adjoining pieces were of the same colour,
the effect would be flat and tame ; but if we take
a low toned yellow or neutral colour, the keynote
will be screwed up to concert pitch, as it were,
and if the neutral colour is followed by a reddish
tone of yellow and that by another variation of
yellow, that again by a decided green, and so on,
we shall achieve that desideratum in stained glass
variety in unity.
The general effect will be warmer or colder as
reddish or greenish tones predominate in the
scheme. Care, of course, must be taken to bring
these contrasted even discordant component
155
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
parts into a harmonious whole : indeed every piece
should be selected, not only to agree with and
help its neighbour, but with reference to the
harmony of the whole. Any undue abruptness
of contrast may be brought into sufficient relation
by the after painting.
The white must be treated in the same way, a
mixture of warm and cold tints as a rule, the general
effect of each mass being made warmer or colder
as found necessary. Great care must be taken
with the masses of white to prevent them looking
like holes in the window: for instance, a white
coming next to a dark colour would have to be a
tint (or very low in tone, as we should say in paint-
ing) to hold its proper place. Only by actual ex-
perience, however, can the artist learn how one
colour affects another, and how certain combinations
will look in their place.
We have now reached the painting stage. All
the glass has been cut and laid out on the outline.
It is now looked over to see if there are any pieces
that will not stand the fire that is, that would
change colour or lose brilliance. The gold pinks,
brown rubies, and some sorts of pure ruby are liable
to do this. Pieces of plain sheet glass may there-
fore be cut to the same shape to paint on, to be
afterwards glazed behind the coloured pieces, so
that the full brilliance is preserved.
The wings of the angel in the panel by Mr.
J. S. Sparrow (to whom I am indebted for this
detailed account) have been treated in this
way.
The outline was made in colours ground in
turpentine, fattened and made workable with japan-
156
MODERN GLASS, DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY J. S. SPARROW.
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
ner's gold-size, in order to stand the matte of
water-colour to be added afterwards.
When the figure is drawn in this way all the
pieces are stuck upon an easel glass (a large stout
piece of sheet) with a composition of bees-wax and
resin. As this is the first time all the pieces have
been seen together the panel is carefully looked
over, as a whole, to see that each piece is of a right
colour and value. Some pieces may have to be
cut over again ; others strengthened or. modified
by the addition of another piece of glass. This last
method is called plating, by which rich and beauti-
ful deep toned effects can be produced.^
A strong flat matte of water-colour is now laid
all over the figure. This forms the half-tones,
and the lights are taken out (when dry) with hog-
hair brushes, the colour being first loosened by
modelling the broad lights with the finger, which
indeed is the best implement, and as much of the
modelling should be done by it as possible.
A quill may be used to take out sharp lights.
The work should now be ready for the kiln, but
before firing it should be again stuck up, and
looked over, and any strengthening or definition
added in shadows on details by oil-colour with
the addition of fat turpentine to keep it open ; the
dry surface of the glass being first treated with a
wash of oil of tar to make the colour flow easily.
Then the diapers and hair are stained on the
back of the glass, and it is ready for the kiln.
After being leaded up, the leads soldered to-
gether at the junctions, the panel is again placed
on the easel, and further alterations or improve-
ments may be made, as the leaded panel looks
158
THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS
very different from the glass by Itself. The panel
is next cemented, the leads filled up with putty or
cement to make it firm and water-tight. The
cement is like a very thick paint, a mixture of
white lead, whitening, red lead, lamp-black, dryers
and raw and boiled oil.
The window may require to be supported by
horizontal iron bars, if it extends over two feet.
They are usually placed about fifteen inches apart,
as the leaded glass might bend under the pressure
of wind without extra support
From this account we may realize what care
and taste are necessary to carry out really artistic
work in stained glass. The whole subject affords
us a good illustration of one of the highest and
most beautiful of the arts of design, severely con-
trolled by well-defined conditions conditions
which, if followed faithfully, give it all its peculiar
character, strength, and beauty. The necessities
of leading and cutting the glass demand a certain
severity and simplicity of design from which a
new beauty is evolvfed, capable in its turn of in-
fluencing other forms of art 'for good, as in easel
painting which harmonizes with its symbolic and
religious intention as well as with the architectural
and monumental character of its surroundings in
its noblest forms in public and college halls and
churches ; while its glow and colour, suggestive
symbolism, or heraldic adornment, may cheer and
vivify domestic interiors with a touch of poetry
and romance.
CHAPTER V. OF THE CLIMATIC
INFLUENCE IN DESIGN CHIEFLY
IN REGARD TO COLOUR AND
PATTERN
WE have seen how largely Design in its
manifold forms has been influenced by
various physical conditions and necessities, and in
pursuing the subject we can hardly fail to note
that, outside those more strictly defined technical
conditions we have been considering, there are
certain broad controlling influences which have
determined, and still determine, essential differ-
ences of character as between the products of one
country and another ; differences which, despite
the complex network of international commerce
and exchange, tending ever to obscure and confuse
those native and natural differences by mixture
and fusion, still persist. Indeed, as Manchester
manufacturers and merchants well know, in the
matter of pattern and colour they have to be taken
into serious account, since we have unfortunately
taken upon ourselves the responsibility -of supply-
ing Eastern markets, substituting our own ideas
of pattern and colour in fabrics for "the original
native ones or rather, sending back to the native
Chinese and Indian second-hand notions of their
own colours and patterns.
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
Now to what principal cause may we trace these
broad differences in the choice and treatment of
colour and design in different countries those
variations which enable us to assign each to its
native home, north, south, east, or west, upon this
parti-coloured globe of ours ?
If we were to endeavour to mark upon a chart
in some bright colour, say red or yellow, all those
countries where, given a certain organized social
life of civilization of some kind, bright sunshine
was the rule, and indicate proportionally its lesser
degrees in others, we should get a vivid notion of
the general distribution of the colour sense : we
should naturally come to the conclusion that it is
to the source of all our life, light, and heat to the
sun that we must also trace our colour sense,
which is a part of the sense of sight itself. It is
to the influence of sunlight, direct or indirect, and
to its prevalence in a greater or lesser degree in
different countries, then, that we may attribute the
differences of taste and feeling for colour and
pattern which mark the different quarters of the
inhabited earth.
We know how we are affected by the absence
or presence of sunlight in our own country, and by
a heavy or light atmosphere, and are sensitive to
the changes of the weather, which no doubt have
their influence upon our work, and we know how
different colours look in different degrees and
qualities, of light.
We have only to follow the pattern book of
Nature herself, indeed, and see how distinctly she
paints upon the globe the different zones of climate
in different coloured flowers, birds, and animals
161 M
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
corresponding with those differences ; or follow
her system of coloration in the ordinary procession
of the seasons, without going out of our own
country.
With the return of the sun and lengthening
days and the new awakening of life in the spring,
a delicate bloom overspreads the landscape, the
dark wintry woodlands burst into blossoms and
clouds of foliage, taking every tint, from the palest
green to delicate amber and red; while the meadows
show the rich moist green of new springing grass,
embroidered with flowers, yellow, white, and blue ;
and the blue sky seems to repeat itself in the
copses where the hyacinths grow. Gradually, as
spring turns to summer, the colours deepen, the
greens of trees and grass grow fuller, the flowers
grow brighter and more varied in hue, crimsons
and reds and purples are seen, and gardens become
feasts of colour ; and as the cornfields ripen scarlet
poppies mingle with the gold, and the leaves of
the trees, having reached their darkest tint, as
autumn nears, become tinged with yellow and
brown, and, before they fall, turn into wonderful
harmonies of russet and gold, in part recalling,
though in lower tones, some of the colours of
spring.
The ripe fruit in the orchards gives a deeper
note of richer and brighter colour, when the pro-
cession of flowers has reached the threshold of
winter, bare and cold, though not colourless its
colours being more metallic the silver of frost
and mists, and the ruddy gold of the winter sun
gilding the black trees, whereon mosses and lichens
take the place of leaves and flowers, and sombre
162
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
yews and hollies and firs, instead of the bright
greens of spring, until the whole is veiled in ice
and snow.
This drama of expressive colour is enacted be-
fore our eyes every year those of us, at least,
who are fortunate enough to live in the country,
and are observers ; and even to town dwellers the
tale of colour to a certain extent is told by the
importation of flowers, or even by the textiles in
drapers' windows, or costumes in the street, as
humanity responds to the approach of the sun by
wearing lighter and fairer colours in the spring
and summer, and getting darker and more sombre
again in the autumn and winter.
We have only to glance at the various manifes-
tations of our home arts to note these changes with
the characteristic colours of our varied landscape
reflected, not only in the works of our painters,
but in the half-tones of our textiles and wall-papers,
and throughout our decorative design, which for
form, too, owes so much to the flora of our native
land.
It does not seem to follow that with the great-
est amount of sunlight we get the most colour; on
the contrary, the zenith of light is the absorption
of colour, just as darkness represents its extinction.
Light and darkness are the black and white on
the palette of nature, necessary to give value to
her colours.
The sense of colour, too, is no doubt greatly af-
fected by other climatic influences, such as humid-
ity, haziness, clearness, heat and cold, as well as
their accompaniments in varieties of scenery and
locality, such as plains or mountains, woodland,
163
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
sea-board, lake, river, agricultural land, or wild
nature.
We associate brilliant colours and bold designs
with eastern and southern countries, but, apart
from the greater stimulus of light which might^en-
courage the use of vivid colour, there is, I think,
another reason which accounts for the bolder and
franker use of colour and ornament in the south
and east. Broad and full sunlight has a curiously
flattening effect upon colour and pattern, and
therefore colours and patterns which under a gray
sky would look staring, or very strong arid strik-
ing, under the full sunlight fall into ; plane, ^ and
become subordinated to the dominant pitch of light.
We may take as an instance the porch of the
Cathedral at Pistoia. The bold black and white
bands of marble which face the front of this build-
ing as of so many mediaeval Lombardic Italian
cathedrals, as at Florence, Genoa, and Siena (an
idea borrowed from the Saracens) look striking
enough under a gray sky, but when the sunlight
falls upon the building and raises the whole pitch
of light the whole mass with its projections falls
into planes of broad light and shade. The black
bands become gray and flat in the light, and all fall
into their places in the architectural scheme, and
therefore, though borrowed from the east, are quite
appropriate in a climate like Italy, which can count
on persistent sunshine for the most part, summer
and winter. Inside the porch, in the spandril and
vault, is faced with Delia Robbia ware, in blue,
white, and yellow, and a very beautiful piece of
decoration it is. This, again, however, in a dull
atmosphere might look cold and strange, but illu-
164
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
initiated by the rich reflected light cast up from
the sunlit pavement it takes all sorts of accidental
ITS
lights and falls into Its place admirably. Other-
wise the porch is interesting from the curious blend
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
of Byzantine, Saracenic, and classical motives and
influences in decoration.
Seen in the cold and dull light of an English
museum, away from their proper architectural sur-
roundings, panels of Delia Robbia ware are apt to
look somewhat strong, bold, or rank in colour, which
only shows they were designed in a sunny bright
climate, and to be seen in a full external or warm
reflected light as a rule. The very qualities that
make the ware trying in one place make it right
in another.
The various historic types of design in archi-
tecture and decoration are, in fact, mostly the result
of the blending or uniting of elements derived from
different sources. While we may in the leading
types prevalent in different countries detect the
fundamental prevailing influence of life, custom
and habit, the result of climatic and racial condi-
tions ; we may also see, owing to social and politi-
cal changes and the results of conquest or of
commercial relations, other elements coming in
various details of construction, form, and colour.
Our present purpose, however, is rather to seek
the fundamental characteristic types and predilec-
tions traceable to the fundamental or natural con-
ditions of locality and climate, as far as they can
be followed in historic decoration.
It seems to have been in the power of certain
ancient peoples to impress and to preserve the
character of their life and the conditions of their
habitat very strongly upon their art, so that, though
their political power has long ago been swept
away, their records remain practically imperishable
In their monuments of art.
166
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
Of such the ancient Egyptians must always be
typical.
If we look at the structure of the primitive
Egyptian dwelling we shall find that it illustrates
those influences of climate and locality in a very
emphatic way.
In the first place, as we know, Egypt depends
upon her great river, the Nile, which may be said
to have made her existence possible, since its
waters fertilize the whole country. It is interest-
ing, then, to note that the primitive Egyptian
dwelling was essentially suggestive of the riverside
and of a country of sunshine. Its materials were
those of the waterside, consisting of clay and canes
and lotus reeds ; the canes being used for the
framing and support of tjhe clay walls, which are
built in layers between t^ern.
The plans and diagrams of construction (from
Viollet le Due) will give a; clear idea of the form
and character of the primitive Egyptian dwelling.
In the course of an interesting account of its con-
struction he says: that it is a dwelling for a
country where brilliant sunshine is the rule is
shown by the smallness of the windows, which are
furnished with lattices. The walls were frequently
plastered with clay, covered with a composition
made of the same clay and fine sand or white
stone dust, and this furnished a ground for the
painters who decorated the reeds and plastered
walls with brilliant colours ; the walls'" and ceilings
of the interior were also decorated in the same
way; rush mats furnished the floor and covered
the lower part of the walls. Sometimes, also, we
find a portico supported on bundles of reeds, the
167
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
covering of which is made of wood and byblos,
with a terrace of clay before the door, affording
shade and coolness in front of the dwelling. Like
most dwellings in eastern countries, there is a flat
roof or terrace on the top of the house, approached
168
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
by steps; and here awnings are spread on poles
to give shade, when they can be used for sitting
upon or for sleeping or enjoying the
cool of the day.
When the Egyptians learned the art
of building and carving in stone from
the rock dwellers above the Delta, and
built their great temples, they still per-
petuated in stone, in the reeded and
filleted columns with lotus capitals, the
ornamental traditions of the reed-built
primitive dwelling, and the painter
still adorned them in bright primitive
colours ; so that we are perpetually re-
minded of the great riverside, from
which sprung the flower of that ancient
art and civilization. Another effect of
climate upon art may be noted in the
representation of figures. The Egyp-
tian climate being extremely warm but
equable, most out-door occupations
precluded the wearing of much apparel,
so that the figure nude and lightly clad
plays an important part in Egyptian
design, as in Greek.
At a time like the present, when
the world of design suffers rather from
what might be called too generous or .
too mixed a diet; when the tendency COLUMN FROM
is to over-elaborate, to combine too Juxoif F
many elements ; to be lost either in an
overdone flamboyance of curvature, or in a strain-
ing after a forced and inappropriate naturalism, a
study of Egyptian art may be recommended as a
169
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
wholesome corrective. The simplicity, severity,
and restraint, abstract and yet vivid characteriza-
tion of form, frank and primitive coloration, pur-
poseful intention, and mural motives and methods
arefuJl of suggestiveness and value to the student
and decorative designer.
170
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
Another instance of the influence of primitive
timber construction over stone may be seen in
comparing the ancient Persian column with its
timber prototype still in use.
Persia, indeed, is another eastern
country which has preserved
almost unbroken traditions
in design from a very re-
mote past, and may be said to be
the source of the most beautiful
types of ornamental art the world
has ever seen, and especially in
three leading forms coloured
and glazed tiles and bricks, pot-
tery, and textiles. To judge from
the wonderful decoration of glazed
bricks discovered a few years ago
at Susa, forming part of the an-
cient forum and palace of Darius,
destroyed in the reign of Xerxes,
B.C. 485-465, excavated by M.
and Mme. Dieulafoy, 1 the artistic
skill of the Persians in this kind of
work, and their sense of its value,
and the treatment of colour and
ornament, dates back to a very
early period.
In the famous frieze of archers,
which formed part of the wall de-
coration of this palace, the figures
are frankly repeated in design though alternating
in the patterns and colours of their dress, boldly
1 See " Acropole de Suse," Hachette et Cie., 79, Boulevard
St. Germain e, Paris.
LOTUS CAPITAL,
PHIL/E.
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
relieved upon a field of torquoise blue, formed
by the glazed bricks by which the frieze is con-
structed. The figures and ornament must have
been moulded or stamped in relief upon the clay
while soft, and cut up into bricks, and afterwards
fired and glazed in the method of Robbia ware ;
the whole scheme is severely simple but very ef-
fective in its proper position upon the walls of one
of the large courts of the palace, mostly in reflected
light under projecting porticoes, and would be very
impressive and at the same time truly mural and
reposeful in feeling and colour.
Such a scheme of frank colour and fine detail
could hardly have been conceived except in a
country of brilliant light. Some cloubt exists as
to the exact position of the frieze upon the wall.
Figures of similar scale in Assyrian work and also
at Persepolis were placed not far, if at all, above
the eye level.
Upon the dress of one set of the archers is fig-
ured, it is supposed, the fortress of Susa itself,
which was built upon a mount.
There is much interesting ornamental detail in
the dresses, which afford excellent authorities for
the costume of Persian warriors of that period.
We see also the palm-leaf border, a primitive form,
type and forerunner of a whole tribe of border
design. The rosette is said to resemble " the full-
blown Star of Bethlehem, conspicuous among all
other flowers, among the herbage clothing the
stretches of Susiana and the tablelands of Iran
(Persia) after the first rains in early spring/'
(Perrot and Chipiez, p. 137.)
We may note, too, what seems obviously the
172
iV--:.:;w5lilS*^SI8^
.jpsfBBfliif If; ^^lilii: ':':|p^|fc/!3)|^p.:- ! ; i "i^r:i.::.'l|lis-
FRIEZE IN COLOURED AND GLAZED BRICKS, PALACE OF SUSA.
FROM THE REPRODUCTION AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
prototype of the Moorish battlement, defined in
blue bricks above the figures, suggesting they are
guarding the citadel.
The Moorish or Arabian form constantly occurs
as an ornamental cresting in carved woodwork,
and also appears to have suggested an ornamental
form largely used with variations in eastern carpets,
notably those of Turkistan.
The treatment of the design has the severity
and simplicity of early Asiatic monumental art,
and is allied in treatment to the Assyrian relief
work, but is more subtle and refined, and shows a
finer decorative and colour sense.
In the treatment of blue the Persians always
seem to have been particularly successful, and
their later tile work in the Mohammedan period
is well known, and continues down to our own
time.
The love of blue and its use in tile work and
pottery seems to have been general all over the
east ; it may be because of the adaptability of the
metallic oxide colour to firing, but also it may be
due to the pleasant relief and sense of coolness
such decoration would afford to the eye in courts
and interiors screened from the sun.
The old Nankin blue, so famous in Chinese
porcelain, in the so-called hawthorn pattern, was
described by one of the emperors as the blue of
the sky showing through the white clouds after
the south rain.
In carpets Persia about our sixteenth century
reached a pitch of perfection in design, colouring,
and material which, it would seem, has never been
reached before or since. In these works we, of
174
'THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
course, pass to a very different and much later
period of Persian history, after the Arabian inva-
sion in the seventh century, and the conversion
of its people to the Mohammedan religion, under
which Persian art developed in such delicate, rich,
and beautiful forms.
There are very magnificent specimens of the
finest types of Persian carpets now in the national
collection at South Kensington, the Persian collec-
tion having been recently rearranged in the new
galleries in Imperial Institute Road to very great
advantage as regards lighting and opportunities of
study.
The famous Holy Carpet of the mosque at
Ardebil is perhaps the finest example, though
there are others more inventive in pattern, if not
more delicate in design or harmonious in colour.
A curious feature in the pattern of this carpet is a
hanging lamp, such a lamp as is used for lighting
mosques, with a painted glass body, probably sus-
pended by chains from the roof. The lamp is re-
peated at the end of the main ornament of the
field of the carpet, facing opposite ways.
The inscription worked in Arabic characters
into the carpet at one end is given in translation
thus: "I have no refuge in the world other than
thy threshold. My head has no protection other
than this porchway, the work of the slave of this
holy place, Maksond of Kashan in the year 946 "
(corresponding to our A,D. 1540). We thus see
that it is a carpet destined for an entrance, or
porchway, of a mosque, and the woven images of
the lamps probably indicated the real lamps sus-
pended overhead to light 'the' entrance to the
175
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
mosque. So that, though they seem strange ob-
jects in the pattern of a carpet, they have a certain
appropriateness and significance in this particular
one. Fire, too, was a sacred emblem of the
ancient Persians.
Persia might be said to be a country of gardens,
of deserts, and of abundant sunshine. It is for
the most part a high table-land, and is described
as a climate of extremes. " Nowhere in the habit-
able world is there so sharp a contrast between
the heat of noon and the cold of night, between
the brown bare rock and the verdant meadow,
betwoen the gorgeous hues of natural plains and
the absolute bareness of arid wastes." (Perrot
and Chipiez.)
Such a description is very suggestive. We
seem to see natural reasons for the interest and
beauty of Persian art in the varied physical condi-
tions of their country and climate.
The love of the sheltered, walled-in, and natural
garden is very evident in their literature ; and the
influence of their flora upon their design of all
kinds is evident enough.
The idea of the eastern paradise is a garden.
We have it in the Bible in the Garden of Eden
an inclosed pleasance or park full of choice trees
and rare flowers, animals of the chase, and birds.
This idea recurs constantly in Persian design.
The very scheme of the typical carpet seems de-
rived- from it a rich vari-coloured field hedged
about with its borders. The field is frequently
obviously intended for a field of flowers, and some-
times suggests a wood or an orchard of fruit trees.
The idea of the green oasis to the traveller in the
176
HOLY CARPET OF THE MOSQUE AT ARDEBIL (SOUTH KENSINGTON
MUSEUM).
. 177 N
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
desert ; the grateful relief of the colour and shade
of green trees and fresh flowers ; the sound of
waters; the delight of the horseman and the
hunter ; the dark forest full of dangerous animals
are *,not these things irresistibly suggested in
Persian design ?
The same sensitiveness to natural beauty and
the influence of climate is shown in their poets.
The astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam,
sings of the awakening spring. It is a period,
too, associated with the termination of a religious
fast, Ramazan, which is analogous to our Lent,
perhaps.
Omar invites his reader to come forth, like a
true poet, seeking inspiration in the wilderness.
"With me along the strip of herbage strown,
That just divides the desert from the sown,
Where name of slave and sultan is forgot,
And peace to Mahmud on his golden throne."
t-. Spring in Persia must be a much more sudden
Burst of life and efflorescence than we can realize
from our own timid and coy climate. Even in
Italy the spring generally comes all at once with
a burst of bloom and a profusion of blossoms and
flowers, and in its strength the sun straightway
leads on into summer before one is aware. This
gives one an idea what it must be in a country
like Persia the country of the rose and the night-
ingale as well as of the vine, of which Omar the
poet is eloquent.
Then, too, it is an agricultural country. "He
who guides a plough does a pious deed " is one of
the precepts of the early Parsee religion, which
also, as its main conception, presents the constant
178
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
strife of good against evil, light against darkness,
personified by the contest of Orrnuzd and Ahri-
man.
The sturdy and honest peasant was the back-
bone of the country in ancient times, and furnished
those sturdy warriors who built the power of
the ancient kings. And in the political changes
or conquests to which Persia has been subject in
the course of her history, her people would always
appear to have had a recuperative power, or a
power of absorbing their conquerors, or perhaps
a certain tenacity of purpose, or a conservation of
the vital part in old beliefs and traditions which
have been favourable to art.
How far that art was original, in the time of
Persia's ancient greatness as a conquering power,
in the time of Darius, when the palace at Susa
was built how far it was influenced from other
sources, or contributed to by artists of other nations,
must always be more or less a matter of conject-
ure ; but in the Susa work we are reminded of
Assyrian decoration, and even of Greek and
Egyptian influence.
The Persian art, however, which has had the
most influence upon the neighbouring Asiatic
countries, and upon Europe, has been produced
since the Arabian conquest in the seventh century,
and the conversion of the country to the Moham-
medan faith. Even then, however, although in
Mohammedan art the representation of animals is
forbidden, the Persians were neutral and independ-
ent ; in Persian design animals have been freely
introduced, and with charming decorative effect.
It is supposed; indeed, that Persian art is really
179
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
the source of invention of many forms commonly
called Arabian and Indian, and these forms have
travelled both east and west, and have been modi-
fied in the countries of their adoption. The
Persians seem to have been in Asia much what
the Greeks were in Europe both great adaptors
and great originators in design.
One might trace elements and influences and
types of form and treatment from other countries
and races in Persian art, but one traces Persian
influence to a far greater extent in the art of other
countries.
In India, which was also invaded by Islam, and
was colonized by Persians, the Arabic type of art
also became naturalized in architecture and decora-
tion. Here again we have a country of the sun.
Here again we find tile decoration in great beauty,
and the use of bright colours and intricate design.
Intricacy both of colour and pattern is perhaps
the chief characteristic of Indian design.
One feature in Indian, as in Arabic dwellings,
may be noticed as a direct result of the persistent
sunshine turned to decorative account one com-
mon to eastern countries-- the pierced screen or
lattice window, which tempers the fierce light of
the sun and breaks it into small stars of light.
The rich carved timber overhanging windows,
with its lattice screen so characteristic of old
Cairo and Arabian life, is repeated with variations
in India, and not only in wood but in stone and
faience. We find small ogee-pointed windows
with perforated lattices cut in sandstone of intricate
design and delightful ornamental effect. There
are some in the India Museum from Agra. But
1 80
ARAB CASEMENT FROM CAIRO (SOUTH KENSINGTON
MUSEUM. BRAWN BY W, CLEOBURY),
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
the loveliest of all are those in the mosque of the
Palace at Ahmedabad, consisting of most delicate
and intricate designs of trees cut in stone, which
fill the arched openings. One of these windows
is here illustrated. There is nothing more delicate
or beautiful in the whole range of architectural
ornament.
In the tomb of Yusuf Shah Cadez, at Multan,
occur large perforated screens in tile work. This
tomb, an excellent reproduction of which is to be
seen in the India Museum, is a fine example of
Mohammedan tile work and decoration in two
blues turquoise and ultramarine on a warm
white ground. In the luminous atmosphere of
India, beneath the deep blue vault of the sky, such
colour on such surface must be very beautiful.
Perhaps the love of intricate ornament in Indian
carved and pierced work in the doors, window
casements, and lattices may be due in part to the
certainty of obtaining a bright, crisp, rich, spark-
ling effect in the broad and strong sunlight, where
every touch would tell, and the fret or lattice
work over a pierced opening would have all the
richness and delicacy of lace.
Then in the solemn and dimly-lighted splendour
of the interior of the mosques, the Mohammedan,
alike in Arabia, Turkey, Persia, or India, found a
grateful contrast and relief to the eye, while his
religious imagination and emotion were stimulated.
Much the same feeling intensified which comes
over one who passes from the brilliant Venetian
sunlight on the piazza, the glittering quays and
dancing light and colour of Venice, into the sub-
dued, cool, and golden shade of St. Mark's.
182
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THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
This wonderful contrast of bright and dark, of
glitter and solemnity, the splendour of sunlight
and the solemnity of shade, can only be fully ap-
preciated in southern or eastern countries. The
pitch of light being higher the shade seems deeper,
and yet it is a shade full of colour always.
When the sun sinks, in the short afterglow every-
thing seems fused in an atmosphere of luminous
colour and half-tone, which transfigures and glori-
fies everything. We get an approach to it on the
finest summer evenings in England, but with a
different and generally less romantic background.
It would appear, though, that climates which are
characterized by constant sunlight and heat favour
rather traditional than individual forms of art.
The sun, the giver of life and light, becomes over-
powering, always present, and in its searching
beams leaves no hiding-place for the romantic
imagination, except in temples and mosques at
sunrise or sunset, or under the moon. We may
have an equable and warm climate like Egypt,
where all is sharply defined in the light of a clear
and serene atmosphere, with a regulated, ordered
life, as in her ancient days, under a long succession
of dynasties, and we see the outcome in art -
measured, calculated according to strict method
and authority and convention, with but little room
for individual feeling.
In Persia we find a climate of sharp contrasts,
hot sun by day and sharp cold at night, verdure
and desert, bare rock and flowery meadow side by
side, and we get a wonderfully varied art, rich in
colour and fantasy.
In India the invention, though kindred, perhaps
184
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
even largely borrowed, seems tamer, the intricacy
more calculated, the richness more mechanical ;
and we find this with a dependent people in a land
of fiercer and more permanent sunshine, pursuing
mostly an agricultural life, like the ancient
Egyptians, under conditions practically unchanged
for centuries.
In Greece, which fused and absorbed Asiatic
elements in her art, we see another country of
the sun, yet subject to winds and variations and
marked transition of the seasons a mountainous,
rocky country, beautiful in form and embracing
the sea. In art she has given us the perfection
of figure sculpture.
In Italy, with hardly less sun, yet by no means
beyond the reach of wintry cold, severe winds,
great rains and sometimes snow, yet w-ith a burn-
ing summer for the most part, which has decidedly
fixed the types in her architecture, we find a union
of many elements, a halfway house between east
and west, where Asiatic feeling unites with Greek
and Roman, Saracen and Norman, Gothic with
Renascence, in an unexampled wealth and profu-
sion of inventive design in architecture, sculpture,
painting, and all the family of artistic handicrafts,
which makes her a happy hunting ground for the
artist, an inexhaustible treasure-house of beauty
and suggestion.
We might follow the chariot of the sun, from
the land of its rising, Japan, a climate more near
to our own, and note her wonderful display of
manipulation and imitative skill, in all ways of
handicrafts dominating by a certain grotesqueness
as well as naturalistic impressionism ; or, passing
1*5
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
to her great foe China, see something of the same
tendencies and stages in the rising of her ^ art,
breaking off, as it were, at a stage of restrained
conventionalism or westward, along the southern
shores of the blue Mediterranean, following in the
footsteps of the Moors, and note the wonderfully
ornate but somewhat heartless splendour of their
art in Spain: the gilded magnificence of the
Alhambra, with its glittering pendentive ceilings,
borrowed, as some think, in the first place from
Persia, and the wonderful jewel-like sparkle and
intricate fancy of its ornament with its ever-re-
curring star-forms and scimitar-like scrolls.
And then turning northwards into France, with
one hand touching the sunny south and the other
dipped in the gray English Channel, we should
find some "of the same elements, but very differ-
ently mixed, with a very distinct character of art
Cold in colour, correct in form, brilliant in work-
manship, quick-witted, dramatic ; ever experiment-
ing and inquiring, and desiring, like the ancient
Greeks, some new thing.
Pursuing our journey northwards, we might
pause in Flanders and Holland and mark how
closely associated with local conditions of life and
climate are their forms of art, more especially as
illustrated in the art of their past days -the
pictures of rich Flemish burgher life of the Middle
Ages, the knights and ladies with a certain stern-
ness and stiffness of demeanour, as of an energetic
and yet patient people accustomed to contend
with difficulties, proud, yet devotional, and fond
of comfort, kneeling, well-clad in velvets and rich
furs against a northern climate.
1 86
SPAIN. PORTION OF THE ALHAMBRA. DRAWN BY GUSTAVE DORE\
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
Germany would tell a similar tale in her arts,
though with a more dominant military and religious
note, more fantasy and more melancholy, and with
a wild grotesque element corresponding with her
more varied conditions of climate and scenery.
OLD HOUSE IN TURNOV, BOHEMIA, DATED lSl6.
The latter quality is still more marked among the
old towns of Bohemia. The two sketches here
give some of the architectural characteristics of
both town and country dwellings.
After such a journey we should doubtless be
glad to get home again to our own varying and
188
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
changeable climate, and when seated comfortably
at the fireside think how much the characteristics
of our native art may also owe to the influence of
the constant and varied procession of sunshine
and cloud, storm and calm, heat and cold, fickle
STREET IN EGER, BOHEMIA.
spring, short summer, long uncertain winter, our
mist and rain (which gives us our green woodlands
and meadows), to our wild and dangerous coasts.
Or we may well think whether these influences
are not traceable in our art: love of domesticity
and indoor comfort, characterized by warm and
189
THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
blended though subdued colour, small patterns,
trimness and neatness ; love of animals and flowers,
of natural scenery and the sea. May it not be
said these are characteristics which our pictorial
art certainly displays ? While our architecture
(in spite of foreign importations) is obliged to con-
sider the necessities of a varying climate, so that
our houses are built as a rule more to live in than
to look at ; and the colours of our interiors, while
they often re-echo the greens, browns, and russets
of our landscape as our patterns and fabrics re-
call the flower gardens and meadows are chosen
perhaps more to live with quietly than to excite
controversy, or compel a reference to the grammar
of ornament
190
CHAPTER VI. OF THE RACIAL IN-
FLUENCE IN DESIGN
HT^HOSE personal predilections and idiosyn-
J^ crasies which we each possess, those differ-
ences of temper and qualities of perception which
affect our sense of colour and form, which account
for those variations of treatment in the rendering,
in design or drawing, of the same objects by dif-
ferent persons what are these and whence do
they come ? They belong to the very constitution
of our minds and bodies ; they are beyond our
own control, and beyond almost our own conscious-
ness, oftentimes. They belong to our progenitors
and ancestors perhaps as much as to ourselves,
and are lost in the broken records of past family,
histories ; we can only say that certain forms and
colours appear so and so to our eyes, that we
delight in some more than others because we are
made that way. Such indications of character
and preferences are generally traceable, where
clues and records exist, to the race, or mixture of
races from which we have sprung. We attribute,
for instance, certain imaginative faculties to our
Celtic origin; certain . calculating and analytical
capacities to Teutonic sources ; while as a mixed
race we call ourselves Anglo-Saxon, and as such
are supposed to be especially distinguished by
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
practicality, the racial type gradually, in the pro-
cess of time, being formed by the collective action
of such small individual characteristics somewhat
as great geological deposits, such as our chalk hills,
have been formed by the gradual accumulation
and aggregation of the minute shells of minuter
marine creatures.
These typical racial characteristics in art these
preferences in colour, form, pattern, treatment,
sentiment, and idea, have left their marks upon
the history of art, which indeed becomes, finally,
the only history of races the only record left of
peoples to tell us of their intimate life, their hopes
and fears, their struggles and their aspirations, so
that a scrap of wall-painting, a fragment of an in-
cised slab, a piece of broken pottery, a weapon of
bronze, or a jewel, become in course of time full of
significance eloquent books of the life of peoples
and powers long ago covered by the drifting sands
of time.
The desire to record and to perpetuate seems
to have stimulated the primitive artistic instinct in
all races ; and, indeed, it may still be said to be a
living factor and motive in art production.
Each race seeks an image of itself (as every
individual desires a portrait), and strives to put in
imperishable form the character of its own life,
and the ideas or ideals dearest to it. Thus, the
prehistoric hunter left images of the animals he
hunted, and his hunting reminiscences, scratched
upon bones and smooth slates and stones; much
as the Assyrian kings, in a more elaborate way,
having the resources of a powerful civilization at
command, loved to have recorded on sculptured
192
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
slabs, lining their palaces, their prowess in arms
and the chase ; more especially as hunters and
slayers of lions, though in their case the lion hunt-
ing was done in a more luxurious modern way,
the animals being driven into special inclosures,
and let loose on purpose to be slain by the king
and his men a system of a piece with the gener-
ally tyrannical and cruel methods of despotic
persons. Still, no doubt, there was considerably
more risk and danger involved than in a modern
battue in a pheasant cover barring the chance of
being shot by your neighbour's gun.
Certainly the general tenor of the story told in
ancient Asiatic art is that of the conqueror's
triumphs, of the strong overcoming the weak, the
glorification of kings and warriors in battle, of
beleaguered cities, and the carrying away of
captives and spoils. No doubt, if this conquering
spirit had been absent, if each branch of the great
human family had remained within its primitive
borders, their art would have presented sharper
and more distinct contrasts, while remaining simple
in character. 1 1 is the restless, exploring, conquer-
ing, acquisitive spirit which mixes and blends
elements originally distinct- well, it may be it also
acts as the stormy wind that scatters the winged
seeds of design and, bearing them to new soils,
produces new varieties.
It is 'difficult, of course, to disentangle the strictly
racial characteristics in art entirely from those
other strong influences which, in fact, may be said
to have helped in their formation the influence
of climate, habit, and local materials, which we
have previously touched upon. Yet the purely
193
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
human element appears to come in, and the final
form which art takes among a people must bear
the stamp of individual choice as well as of collect-
ive sentiment and climatic influence.
In primitive communities, however, the indivi-
dual is less apparent than the collective racial influ-
ence. The forms of art are typical and symbolical
rather than imitative or graphic. The great Asiatic
races of antiquity, to judge from the remains of
their monuments, 'the palaces of their kings, and
their temples and tombs, adopted certain typical
methods of representation which, in the case of the
ancient Egyptians, became, in association with a
strictly ordered and carefully organized social
existence under an elaborate religious system and
ritual, actual forms of language and record in the
hieroglyphic. These consisted of certain abstract
representations of familiar forms and figures in-
closed in a kind of cartouche, incised upon stone
walls, or stamped upon plaster and filled with
colour.
The lotus flower served as a symbol of the
annual overflow of the Nile (at the summer solstice)
co important to the Egyptians; the ram and the
sun symbolized Amru-Ra, the king of all gods ;
other animals, with and without wings, the cat,
the dog, the sparrow-hawk for the soul, the beetle
(scarafaus) for creative energy, generation and
perpetuation of life, the snake for continuity of
time, etc. ; and even differently arranged lines, the
zigzag for water, the circle, square, waved line,
spiral, labyrinth, etc., betokened the divine and
secretly- working powers of nature.
Such forms inclosed in cartouches massed to-
194
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
gether, sometimes in horizontal lines, sometimes
in vertical, formed a striking wall decoration in
themselves. A wonderful pitch of abstract yet
exact characterization
of natural form was
reached by very sim-
ple means in this pic-
ture - writing. The
birds especially are
remarkable for their
truth. Every object
had to be clearly de-
fined so as to be
recognized at once
and easily deciphered.
The profile view of
an object is always
the most character-
istic and typical, and
lends itself best to a
system of representa-
tion where all objects |
are on the same plane.
So the glyphic artist
kept strictly to profile.
Love of typical
form, definite outline
and mass, flat and vi-
j i , ,1 EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. TOMB OF
vid coloration these BENIHASAN . NINETEENTH DYNASTY.
are always character-
istic of ancient Egyptian art, even when, as during
the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, a freer
style and greater naturalism is apparent in their
portrait sculpture and wall-paintings.
195
A N r AR WITH OFFERINGS. EGYPTIAN
196
PAINTING, THEBES.
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
The love of clearness of statement and their
conception of art, as in the nature of a decorative
record, seems to be emphatically expressed in their
ways of representation. For instance, in painting
an altar piled with offerings they give the altar
front in elevation, but the offerings, in order that
EGYPTIAN WALL-PAINTING (BRITISH MUSEUM).
each and all should be seen drawn in profile, are
arranged in ground plan. Thus we may say that
their statements were pictures, their pictures were
statements.
There is a wall-painting in the British Museum
showing a fish pond or tank in a garden, surrounded
by trees. The inclosed water is rendered by
197
ASSYRIAN TREE OF LIFE.
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
a flat tint of pale blue, with horizontal zigzag lines
in a second tint across it Lotus flowers and buds
spring vertically from it, and on its surface ducks
ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEF. PAVEMENT SLAB (BRITISH MUSEUM).
and fish are painted in profile. The trees are
painted on the upper side and ends with their
stems springing from the edge of the pond ; but
the row of trees on the near side grows with the
199
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
tops towards the water ; while the row at each end
sprouts outward. The whole forms a very pretty
piece of ornament, and would embroider w^ll for
a table-cloth centre, or lend itself to a treatment
for a mosaic floor. Note the way in which the
trees alternate (apple trees and date palms), and
the grouping of the ducks and the fish alternatino-
with the lotus flower. It is freely painted with
direct brush touches ,on the white plaster.
In the ornamental treatment of tree forms all
the eastern races seem to have excelled. Trees
have always been associated with religious belief,
and have had mystical and symbolical signific-
ance as the tree of the garden of Genesis, the
tree of life, and the fatal tree of the knowledge of
good and evil Trees, too, were man's first shelter
and dwelling; no wonder a race descended from
200
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
arboreal ancestors should revere them and hold
them sacred.
It is interesting to compare this Egyptian
rendering of the date palm tree with an Assyrian
rendering of the same tree, though the latter is
sculptured; or, again, with the Grseco- Roman
version at the house of Icarius. The typical and
sacred tree with the Assyrians, however, was the
tree of life, which became with them a formal
piece of ornament. In it we* seem to see, too, the
original form of a type of ornament constantly recur-
ring In the art of all the Asiatic races, and which
was apparently carried by them, or from them, into
Europe; reappearing in Persian, Greek, Roman,
and Renascence work in all manner of variations,
remaining a typical horizontal border motive to
our own day.
2O I
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
The lotus appears in sculptured Assyrian pave-
ments on the outer border, the open flowers
alternating with the buds, as in Egyptian work.
Then we have another typical and constantly
recurring border motive in the rosette, which has
a rich and sumptuous effect, closely filled in this
way. Then comes in the palmette, or tree of life,
while the centre filling, a network formed of a six-
petalled flower form, again recalls the suggested
textile origin of the ornamental motive of the
whole, to which I have before alluded.
Other interesting and characteristic renderings
of flowers and trees may be found in bas-relief
upon the Assyrian alabaster slabs used as wall
decorations, such as those showing the vine, the
fig, the lily, and the daisy here given, the sculpture
of which, in general, is remarkable not only for the
combination of great power of expression and
energy of action with a very dominant formalizing
and ornamental and typical treatment &f form, but
also for great- delicacy of chiselling ; in one slab
there is a small figure of a king in his chariot,
inclosed within larger work, as finely cut almost
as a gem or seal Note, as illustrating the orna-
mental treatment of animal forms, so characteristic
of these Assyrian or Semitic sculptures, the way
the lions are carved, the masses of the hair of
the manes carefully marked and ornamentally de-
signed, the muscular lines of the face emphasized
in the same ornamental manner. The result is a
typical lion, stately, monumental, sculptural, and
decorative, yet in no way wanting in energy of
action, character, and vigour.
Nothing could be more different in spirit and
202
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
style from the ordinary modern European sculptor's
treatment. The Assyrian grasped the essential
ASSUR BENI PAL. ASSYRIAN LION FROM BRITISH MUSEUM.
leonine character, but expressed it in. typical and
ornamental terms. The modern English, French,
ASSUR BENI PAL. ASSYRIAN LION FROM BRITISH MUSEUM.
German, or Italian generally seeks a naturalism
which struggles to escape from the conditions of
the material; he seeks accidents rather than
essentials, and, in his horror of formalism, tries to
203
THE 'RACIAL INFLUENCE t .
treat the masses of hair and mane as if he wielded
the painters brush rather than the sculptors
chisel though it is generally modelled in clay
first before it is carved. The result is loss of
dignity, typical character, and monumental feeling.
Alfred Stevens saw the importance of a certain
formalism, and his little lion on the uprights^of
the outer railing of the British Museum remains
unequalled, so far as I know, in modern work. 1
The Hellenic race, the Greeks, whose art has
had, and still possesses, such an influence over
that of the modern world, while in their archaic
period differing little in method of treatment and
in use of ornament from the Asiatic races, the
Assyrian and Egyptian and Persian, the elements
of each of which they seemed to fuse and adapt,
gradually developed a freer style, and, while never
losing their monumental sense in sculpture, carried
the human figure in sculpture to the^ greatest
pitch of perfection. Their invention in purely
ornamental forms was not conspicuous, nor was it
needed, since they treated the human figure as
their chief element in decoration. Their leading
ornamental types may be traced to Asiatic proto-
types the palmette and the rosette, for instance.
The scroll, perhaps, they may particularly claim
to have developed, and the anthemion, from their
primitive types.
This latter type of ornament, so generally used
by the Greeks as a crest or crown upon their
upright obelisk-like tombstones or steles, or to
1 For some unexplained reason these lions have been removed
and the London people deprived of perhaps their finest bit of
monumental work.
204
LION, FORMERLY CRESTING THE OUTER RAILING OF THE
BRITISH MUSEUM. MODELLED BY ALFRED STEVENS,
AND CAST IN IRON.
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
crest the angles of the pediments of their temples,
Is suggestive in its general form of a flame, or
pair of wings.
CREEK STELE OR HEAD-STONE.
It is noteworthy that a similar form occurs,
treated in detail in a variety of ways, as a glory or
halo placed behind Buddhist images made in
206
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
ancient India, Japan, and Burmah, often in carved
wood and gilt metal or bronze, pierced and
INDIAN
*&mtK$$&i
ornamented in a variety of ways sometimes
suggesting leafy trees, but generally radiating in
207
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
their principal lines fromacentrejiketheanthemion.
The flame was a sacred symbol with many ancient
peoples, and it remains with us as the fitting emblem
of inspiration.
The gilded, almond-shaped glory inclosing the
figure of the Virgin and of Christ in Gothic paint-
ing and sculpture seems to be another form of the
same emblem, and a similar form is common in all
Persian and Eastern ornament design.
It gener-
PERSIAN POMEGRANATE FORMS (FROM A GOAT-HAIR CARPET,
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM).
ally appears as a kind of fruit or many-petaled
flower, or flower and fruit combined. I am in-
clined to think that it may have originally had a
religious significance associated with fire or life, 1
while its beauty of contour and adaptability in
decoration of all kinds were sufficient to perpetuate
1 Prof. Fischbach, Indeed, traces the relationship of a whole
series of patterns to the influence of fire worship and its
symbolism.
208
^ RACIAL INFLUENCE
it even it the original meaning were lost. If the
Persians invented it, it might have had some
reference to their own primitive fire-worship, while
with the Arabs, and
wherever the faith of
Mohammed spread,
it would still be sig-
nificant of the pro-
phetic fire, and it is
certainly universally
found in the orna-
ment of Mohamme-
dan countries. We
might trace it back
to its primitive form
in the Assyrian tree
of life, and this on the
face of it seems its
most likely source ;
and we find it in Per-
sian work definitely
taking the pome-
granate form within
the rayed leaves.
The rayed flower or
leaf form curiously
reappears in a late
Celtic cross in Ar-
gyllshire, in associa-
tion with the char-
acteristic knotted work, a kind of tree form, and
filling of pattern carved in the stone and culminat-
ing in the cross.
Whatever race may really claim its invention or
209 p
CELTIC ORNAMENT (FROM A CROSS
AT CAMBELTOWN, ARGYLLSHIRE.
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
first effective use, it appeals now universally to
the ornamental sense, and has become the common
property of designers, who do not usually disturb
themselves with the question whether they have
stolen a fruit from the tree of life, or sacred fire
from an unknown hearth, so long as they can fill a
space effectively or make an attractive and adapt-
able design.
Another form, now no less universal, is probably
Persian in origin, although it has found a settled
.home in India -I mean what is known as the
Indian palmette, so familiar to designers for
Manchester calico prints.
I arn told by Mr. Purdon Clarke that this palm
shape denotes benison or blessing, or a message
of goodwill of some kind- This answers to the
symbolical meaning of the palm in the Bible, as
carried by benign and holy persons and angels.
Here would be a symbolical reason for its longevity
in ornament, as it would naturally commend itself
to an eastern race in a sun-burnt land, to whom
the suggestion of shady palms would always be
grateful. But here, again, the beauty of its contour
appeals to the ornamentist on independent grounds.
He values it for its graceful mass in a pattern, for
its bold and sweeping curves, for its value as an
inclosing form for small floral fittings.
To the Persian and Hindu designers, .with their
exquisite and subtle sense of ornament, with their
passion for elaborate intricacy, such a form as this
is. utilized to its utmost capacity, both in counter-
balancing and superimposed masses upon flowery
fields, and as inclosures for smaller fields of pattern ;
while the abundant flora of their spring-time
210
RAYCO -FLOWER- OR-TRCC- OF 1~1F
. -OLD
BROIOCRY
tHiN^e-e^BRolSiS^: 5
TYPICAL ORNAMENTAL FORMS IN PERSIAN, INDIAN, AND
CHINESE DESIGNS.
211
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
blossoms in a new and translated existence in their
richly patterned printed and woven textiles, and in
the carved ornament of their buildings.
The influence in Arabic ornament of the
Mohammedan faith, too, in forbidding the repre-
sentation of living forms, turned the ingenuity and
invention of the Arabic and Eastern designer in
a purely ornamental direction, and as a result we
get extremely elaborate patterns, either purely
geometric, or. filling the interstices of a geometric
framework in inlays and carved and pierced work.
These patterns from the pulpit of a mosque at
Cairo, now in the South Kensington Museum, work
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, show how
fine and delicate Arabic ornament became. We
may note the star-shape formed by the intersection
of the lines. The star is an emblem of the Deity
(Allah).
The plateaus and slopes of the Himalayas,
which are the northern mountainous boundary of
India, were supposed to be the cradle of that great
wandering, colonizing, adaptive, speculative, and
organizing race, the Aryans, from which we
Western people, according to one theory, have
sprung, dispersing over the world, and settling in
different countries and climates. The race has
greatly differentiated in speech, customs, and forms
of art ; and yet through them all it is rather differ-
ences in similarities, or similarities in differences,
that we trace.
Latin, Teutonic, Celtic, suggest great diver-
gences both in spirit and form, yet perhaps the
correspondences are more frequent than the
divergences. When we see how greatly members
212
ARABIAN FOURTEENTH CENTURY CARVED AND INLAID PULPIT, CAIRO
(SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, DRAWN BY W. CLEOBURY).
THE RACIAL ' INFLUENCE
of the same family differ from one another in tastes
and habits, can 'we wonder that members of the
greater human family should be so different in
tastes and habits, under different skies and condi-
tions of life ?
When we turn further east the difference seems
greater, the gaps larger. The Mongolian race seems
further apart and suggests a remoter antiquity.
Their geographical remoteness and their persistent
adhesion to their ancient customs seem to have
fixed more or less of a gulf between them and the
western peoples, and there is a corresponding
contrast in the forms of their art. It is familiar,
and yet- remains strange ; it has been constantly
imported amongst us, and has more than once
influenced European fashions in decorative design,
as in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
through the Dutch, and in the last century in
England in Chippendale furniture and porcelain,
while China has given its name to the finer ware
of the modern potter, of which it taught him the
secret. To this day the willow pattern in blue
upon plates and dishes, with its Chinese legend,
scenery, and personages, remains a popular pattern,
wonderfully little changed by its English translator.
All the typical characteristics are found in its
details, the typical Chinese house raised upon its
first story of stone- with its bamboo trellises and
quaintly curved tiled roof. The Chinese dragon
remains a distinct breed, influencing here and
there the form of the mythical beasts in design of
other races, such as the Persian and Indian, but
remaining as characteristically Chinese itself as
the Pagoda.
214
ARABIAN FOURTEENTH CENTURY CARVED AND INLAID PULPIT,
CAIRO (SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, DRAWN BY
V- CLEOBURY).
215
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
The love of trellis-like backgrounds and dia-
gonal diapers for floral designs is a very marked
feature with the Chinese designer, and it suggests
the native fantastic and ingenious bamboo con-
structions used in the framing and" panelling of
their dwellings and temples, dominated by that
distinct love of quaintness and queerness which
seems a part of the artistic sense in the yellow
race, and is as marked as their love of bright
colour and emphatic pattern.
Their formidable neighbours, relations, and
rivals, the Japanese, exhibit in the art up to a
certain stage much the same qualities and in-
fluences, their art indicating a gradual transforma-
tion in style from the primitive mythical and re-
ligious and symbolical towards the more domestic,
familiar, and naturalistic. But before coming into
contact with European forms of art they began to
develop a naturalistic feeling in their art which in
the present century has become the dominant note,
and, joined with a certain inventive quaintness
and ornamental reserve, has had so tremendous
an influence upon the art of Europe, more
especially modern French art.
Only about forty or fifty years ago Japan was
practically in a mediaeval condition, its arts and
handicrafts in a most fertile and flourishing condi-
tion of living traditions ; but that very quickness
and alertness, that receptivity and artistic im-
pressionableness which has enabled them to
produce such a mass of wonderful work in so many
branches of cunning craftsmanship, have exposed
them to the modern European influences, which,
however they may-have, in. the process of' rapid
216
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
assimilation, contributed to their material power
as a nation in the modern capitalistic and industrial
sense, have had most disastrous commercializing
and deteriorating" effects upon Japanese art and
PANEL IN CARVED AND INLAID WOOD FROM THE MOSQUE OF
TOOLOON IN CAIRO. FOURTEENTH OR FIFTEENTH CEN-
TURY SARACENIC.
handicraft, leading to hasty work and cheap and
gaudy production merely to catch the demand.
Artistic and racial traditions, however, diehard.
Even in Western Europe, in constant intercourse
and intercommunication as we now are, and while
217
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
international influence tends to soften and blend
racial differences, and social relations to mix them,
elements which differentiate the Teuton from the
Latin, the Celt from the Saxon, still survive. In
the process of the adoption of even the same ideas
each race, each nation, gives a different interpreta-
tion to them, just as different individuals will give
a different interpretation in drawing from the same
model. The character is not changed by the
new dress, and the dress becomes influenced by
the wearer. Thus, in adopting ideas and forms
of art, a new direction or character is developed
owing to the racial instincts of the people adopting
them.
German Renascence work, for instance, may be
full of details, the forms of which come from Italy
or Greece, but the combination and treatment, the
application of them, become characteristically
German characteristically full of detail, and fan-
tastic, with a tendency to be overloaded and rest-
less, like their Gothic work. Such variations of
the same type among different peoples may be
likened to the variations of language in the same
country, where the same language is spoken, but
with a different accent.
It is this difference of accent now, under our
complex modern life, which makes the chief differ-
ence in forms of art, and which betrays racial
influence. The actual systems of building pattern,
of pattern forms, methods of drawing and model-
ling figures, and the various handicrafts have all
been discovered long ago, but it is in their re-
combination and adaptation our interpretation
and use of them, and in the power of variation and
21$
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
expression, that modern invention and predilection
tell.
It would be interesting to endeavour to symbo-
lize the fundamental racial characteristics and
preferences by certain typical forms and colours
in procession. .
The races inhabiting the warm countries, south-
ern and eastern, would be distinguished by emphatic
contrasting colours and patterns. Just as the tiger
owes his barred coat to his habit of hiding in
coverts and jungles, where the bright sunlight falls
through the tall grasses and palms in .stripes ; so
where the contrast of light and shade is so sharp
as in Africa, there appears to be a deeply-rooted
preference for barred colours and striped patterns
among the dark race, which they have carried with
them to America, .and which curiously reappears
as a necessary part of the equipment of the sham
Ethiopian serenader in our streets.
The black and white or red and white barred
courses characteristic of Arabian and Moorish
architecture have been alluded to before, and,
though they have been used in other countries,
they always suggest the country which seems to
have given them birth.
Supposing, then, we wanted to express in a
typical symbolical way the racial preferences and
characteristics in ornamental art, a black and white
barred shield and a palm might be appropriate
pattern emblems for the African or the Moor ;
while the Egyptian would naturally bear a lotus
and a scarabseus, with a winged globe for a
standard ; the Assyrian a tree of life ; the Persian
would bear the flame-shaped flower, and the de-
219
THE RACIAL INFLUENCED
vice of Ormuzd and Ahrimanes contending for
the mastery ; the Indian would carry the palmette
and a peacock, and would share with the Arab
the geometric star-form and richly floriated robes ;
the Chinese would show the dragon blazon, and
carry the peony ; the Japanese the red disk of the
rising sun, and a bough of plum blossom ; the
Turanian the crescent and the star ; the Greek the
anthemion, and the figure of Pallas Athene ; the
Roman an eagle standard, and an image of Mars ;
the Scandinavian a raven, and a runic knot.
These might represent the ancient world of art.
The modern and western races it would be more
difficult to symbolize in so primitive and typical a
manner, since all of them have borrowed so largely
from the ancient sources, and are themselves com-
posed of such mixed and complex elements.
Italian art could only be represented by a fusion
of most of the foregoing elements and types, and
would require a crowd of distinguished retainers
in architecture, sculpture, painting, and all the
arts of design ; but perhaps she might bear a
typical classical scroll for a standard, as the typical
designer of that form of ornament in so many
varieties, from Roman times downwards, that
Italy may be said to have made the scroll form
essentially her own.
Germany might follow, great in bold and brave
heraldry, or with a Gothic accent in richly-scrolled
mantling, and a redundant display of Renascence
ornament.
France, as a more volatile Pallas Athene, might,
perhaps, bear the wavering lamp of executive and
imitative skill, and dramatic instinct in design.
220
THE RACIAL INFLUENCE
Spain would look coquettishly under a fan,
wrapped in faded embroidery, bearing" the Alham-
bra, like a pendent jewel : while for England,
what artistic emblems are left ? Well, we have
been described as inveterate colonists, even in art.
We can only make up in a fancy costume of
historic patchwork, beginning with fragments of
Roman mosaic pavement, by way of sandals,
Saxon and Norman hose, Gothic surcoat and
body armour, a classical cloak, and a Victorian
Queen Anne gable by way of headgear, and
perhaps a banner of eclectic wall-paper or printed
cotton.
For all that, and perhaps because of it in some
measure did we take art seriously as a nation,
and make it really a natural and essential part of
our life, as it is its final expression ; should we
determine to set our house in order, and make
England again "merrie," strong in her own borders,
self-supporting, and self-reliant, not suffering the
natural beauty of our land or our historic monu-
ments to be ruthlessly defaced, in the supposed
interests of trade ; putting our trust in the capacity
of the people, rather than in the multiplication of
machines ; uniting hand and brain in our work,
thinking more of the ends of life and less of the
means, when the means of an ample, simple life
shall be within the reach of every citizen, then,
well then we might fairly expect to win the
palm of life, as of art, without despoiling the
African.
221
CHAPTER VII. OF THE SYMBOLIC
INFLUENCE, OR EMBLEMATIC ELE-
MENT IN DESIGN
THE desire to express and to communicate
ideas seems to have impelled man from the
earliest, and lies at the root of all art.
While much early ornament, as we have seen,
is traceable to a constructive origin, another kind,
or another branch of the tree of design is traceable
to a symbolic origin, and springs from the en-
deavour to express thought to find a succinct
language in which to express some sense of the
great powers of nature, and their influence upon
the daily life of man to embody even in a
pictorial emblem, symbol, or allegory his primitive
conceptions of the order of the universe itself.
The mystery and wonders of nature absorbed
the thoughts and touched the imagination of early
as of later man, and primitive symbolic forms, or
signs, constantly bear upon such ideas.
There is a symbolic sign (known to archaeolo-
gists as the fylfot or sauvastika) of very simple
form, which is found very widely scattered among
the relics of many different races and early peoples.
" It is found, 1 ' says Dr. March (of the Lancashire
and Cheshire Archaeological Society, who has
written very suggestively and learnedly on the
222
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
subject), " on archaic Greek pottery, on the stamped
clay of Swiss lake dwellings, adorning Latin
inscriptions on Roman altars "; is common in India
and Asia ; is met with in Scandinavia, Iceland,
Shetland, and Scotland ; in Celtic Ireland, in
Saxon England, as well as in Germany. The
sign was adopted by Christians, is found in the
catacombs of Rome, in the cathedrals of Winchester
and Exeter, on a shield in the Bayeux tapestry,
and on English mediaeval brasses. It also occurs
on a bell at Hathersage Church in Derbyshire,
dated 1617.
This sign appears to have originally signified
the supreme god of the Aryans, and became the
emblem of the divinity from whom emanates the
one movement of the universe ; later, it may have
merely indicated the axial rotation of the heavens
round the Pole Star, and still later it was used
simply as a benedictory sign or mark of good
luck. When the feet were turned to the left the
nocturnal movement of the stars was suggested,
and when the feet turned to the right the diurnal
movement of the sun was supposed to be indicated.
The sign is frequently placed in a circle. A very
few of its stages will suffice to show its transform-
ation into ornament. We may thus see how a
sign purely symbolical, used as we should use
writing, becomes in course of time a decorative
unit, and is incorporated Into ornament. A kin-
dred form is composed of three crescents, which
has its heraldic descendant in the three armoured
legs of the bearings of the Isle of Man. Here we
seem to see the idea of rotation very emphatically
conveyed.
22 3
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
The primitive symbols for fire and water found
(as on the Danish bracteate] in association with
the fylfot sign shown above, form linear patterns
1.. SYMBOLIC ORIGIN or
r^ta.v > ACCORD tsrft
////////
ARCHAIC C
PoTrtu
SftHToMK-
BRACT6AT< ,
Vfcfbr . SVAT6R.
in themselves, and frequently recur in constructive
and surface ornament ; the former suggesting the
method of setting the Roman bricks, called
224
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
11 herring bone," which constantly occurs in modern
work in'brick paving and wood parquet, forming
POLYNESIAN
BHSSIIfi
FROn HEKVLY -1SL7VND PADDLE '
one of the simplest and most satisfactory plans for
floors and pavings in such materials.
225 Q
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
The zigzag, as an ornament incised on clay
vessels painted in patterns, or carved in masonry,
has been a very favourite form from the ancient
Egyptian decorators (to whom it possessed its
original significance as water) onwards, becoming
in later times more particularly characteristic of
Scandinavian ornament and Romanesque archi-
tecture. The zigzag, however, appears to have
an independent source and meaning in the evolu-
tion of Polynesian ornament. In the so-called
" Paddles/ 5 decorated with carved patterns which
are now considered to be really tables of descent,
we may see rows of human figures arranged for-
mally, the legs and arms bent. The angles thus
formed, in the course of repetition and abbrevia-
tion, become simple lines of zigzag pattern.
The circle, a universal and important element
in ornamental design of all times and kinds, appears
early as a symbol for the sun. We might trace
it from its primitive cross and disk and rayed
ornament common to all primitive art to the
splendid Greek conception of Phoebus Apollo in
his chariot drawn by fiery horses, which figures
so constantly in Greek design, the circular flaming
disk being represented in the wheel, though in an
early relief discovered by Dr. Schliemann the head
of Apollo is surrounded by rays, which gives the
type generally used by Gothic and modern de-
signers in symbolic representations of the sun
simply a face in the circle surrounded by rays.
Another means of symbolical expression by the
ue of the circle is to be found in a type of
Scandinavian ornament composed of three circles,
one within the other, which with the rayed sun
226
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
frequently occurs either singly, as in the form of
a metal shield boss or a fibula, or as the unit of a
repeating textile pattern, or as a border. An
Anglo-Saxon lady in a Bene-
dictional executed for St. Ethel-
wold at Winchester in the tenth
century (963-984) wears a dress
so decorated. The original
symbolic meaning of this orna-
ment is sup-
posed to bear
upon the
N orsernen's
conception of
the universe,
the inner cir-
cle, represent-
ing the mid-
gard, or the
earth ; the
second, the
osgard, or asgard, the abode of
the gods; and the iitgard> the
world beyond, inhabited by
giants and spirits of evil. Be-
yond the outer circle is a circle
of dots signifying stars. (See
fig. on p. 224.)
The old Norse sagas and the
songs of Edda give the whole
Norse scheme of the universe,
great ash tree of the universe of time and of
life. The boughs stretched out into heaven,
its highest point, and overshadowed Walhalla,
227
POLYNESIAN ORNA-
MENT. EVOLUTION
OF THE ZIGZAG.
" Igdrasil, the
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
the hall of the heroes. Its three roots reached
down to dark Hel, to Jotunheim, the land of the
Hrimthurses, and to Midgard, the dwelling-place
of the children of men. The world-tree was
ever green, for the fateful Norns sprinkled it
daily with the water of life from the fountain of
Urd, which flowed in Midgard. But the goat
Heidrun, from whom was obtained the mead that
nourished the heroes, and the stag Eikthynir
browsed upon the leaf-buds, and upon the bark of
the tree, while the roots down below are gnawed
by the dragon Nidhogg and innumerable worms :
still the ash could not wither until the last battle
should be fought, where life, time and the world
were all to pass away. So the eagle sang its song
of creation and destruction on the highest branch
of the tree." l
It is interesting to compare such a conception
with the ancient Hindu idea of the world, which
indeed may have been its original form as the
earlier Aryan conception. There is no tree, but
the great snake' of time, compasses all ; the serpent
with its tail in its mouth, an- emblem of continuous
time which still survives. Upon this rests the
tortoise, which seems to correspond with the
Norsemen's dragon, though here it may serve as
the solid basis of the world. The world appears
as a sort of dome in three tiers, reminding us of
the Norsemen's three circles. This is supported
upon the backs of three elephants, which seem
here to fill the position of the Norns or the
Fates.
1 " Asgard and the Gods." DR. WAGNER.
228
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
The ash tree Igdrasil, the sustainer of the
Norse universe, reminds one of the eastern tree
of life the tree of life of the garden of Eden, and
the fountain of the rivers of the Asiatic paradise
which, with the figures of Adam and Eve, the
typical father and mother of the whole human race,
have so constantly figured in art of all kinds, both
HINDU SYMBOL OF THE UNIVERSE.
eastern and western, and continue to stand in the
midst of the garden in endless designs and pictures,
surrounded by the birds and beasts, as. the type
and emblem of the origin of the world in the
Christian cosmos.
The ancient Egyptians, whose art was almost
entirely in the nature of a symbolic language,
when they wished to express the divine creative
power which sustains the universe, designed a
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
winged globe encircled or upborne by two ser-
pents here we get, perhaps, the snake of time
again. Sometimes the scarabaeus, or sacred
beetle, emblem of transformation and immortality,
is represented covering an egg and supporting
the sun, and they are the wings of the scarabaeus
which are given to the globe. This emblem is
frequently carved over the gateways to their
temples.
Then the Egyptians had an elaborate symbolism
connected with death and the passage of the soul.
The coffins and i mummy cases are painted all over
with symbolic devices, figures, birds, and animals
having a sacred significance.
The soul is commonly represented as being
borne in a boat, or barge, with curved stem and
stern, terminating in lotus flowers. (The lotus
symbolized new birth and resurrection.) The
food for the journey is shown in the urns placed
underneath the couch. Two mourners or watchers
accompany it.
There is a copy of a large painting from Thebes
in the British Museum showing the judgment of
the soul ; the Devourer, a. monster part crocodile
part hippopotamus, standing ready to devour the
soul if the verdict is unfavourable. Further on
the accepted soul appears before Osiris.
The goddess Nut (the heavens) is frequently
painted upon the sarcophagi and mummy cases in
the form of a seated or kneeling fio-ure fa woman
o o
with very large wings outspread and curving up-
wards ; she holds in her hands the feather the
symbol of power or domination. (We still speak of
the feather in the cap.) She bears the disk of
2^0
r
EXAMPLES OF EGYPTIAN SYMBOLISM.
231
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
the sun upon her head. To the Egyptians, indeed,
we owe the very embodiment of the mystery of
existence itself the sphinx who continues to pro-
pound her riddle afresh to every age.
Greek mythology again, as exemplified in
Greek art, expresses itself symbolically, and shows
a gradual development from the primitive, ruder,
and often savage personification of the powers of
nature, more allied to the conceptions of the
Northmen, to the idealized, refined, poetic and
beautiful personifications of their later vase paint-
ing and Phidian sculpture. The symbolic inten-
tion and the personifying method was carried on
and embodied in free and natural forms, though
always governed by the ornamental feeling and
necessities of harmonious relation to architectural
and decorative conditions.
The first observers of the heavens, the primitive
herdsman, hunter, the fisherman and the shepherd,
have left their symbolic heraldry in the very stars
above our heads; and Charles's or ceorls' wain
and the signs of the zodiac still remind us of the
primitive life of a pastoral and agricultural people.
The pediments of the Parthenon, for instance,
are great pieces of symbolical art, and at the same
time most beautiful as figure design and sculpture.
It is distressing to think that so late as 1687 the
Parthenon was practically complete as far as its
sculpture and architecture. It was first used as a
Greek Christian Church during the Middle Ages,
and then, falling into the hands of the Turks,
became a mosque ; when the Venetians bombarded
Athens in 1687 a shell dropped into the Par-
thenon, where the Turks had stored their powder,
232
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
and blew out the whole centre of the building.
Even in the broken and imperfect state in which
we are now only able to see them, from the more
or less complete figures and groups which compose
its parts, we can gather an idea of the harmony
and unity of the whole, and the complete union of
the symbolism with the artistic treatment. The
whole conception strongly appealed to the senti-
ment of the Athenian citizen, since the two pedi-
ments represented the contest of Athene and
Poseidon for the patronage of Athens, arts and
laws, or the rule of the sea. We all know that
the arts and laws won, and that Athens is immortal
by reason of her art and poetry and philosophy,
not by her command of the sea. We modern
English, perhaps, might do well to apply the
lesson, and consider that after all it is not in
mere appropriation of riches, extension of empire,
material prosperity, or in our volume of trade, that
the true greatness of a country consists, but in the
capacity and heroism of her people.
In the eastern pediment the centre group ex-
pressed the birth of Athene herself, or rather her
first appearance amongst the Olympians the
divine virgin deity and protectress of the city
which bore her name, and whose colossal statue
in ivory and gold stood on the Acropolis in front
of the Parthenon. The other deities are grouped
around, and on one side we have the Parcse, the
three fates controlling the life of man (which the
Northmen embodied in the Noras); then, reclining
at one side where the pediment narrows, the figure
of the great Athenian hero, Theseus ; and in the
extreme angle the sun-god, 'Helios, with out-
2 33
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
stretched arms is seen guiding his horses, which
emerge from the sea being balanced at the corre-
sponding angle by Selene, the moon, descending
with her horses into the sea. Thus, we have a
series of ideas expressed symbolically in heroic
figures of deep import to the Athenians, and having
also in the suggestion of the fateful control of
human life, and the continuous order of nature in
the rising sun and setting moon, a wide and lasting
significance apart from the beautiful form and con-
summate art by which they are embodied.
The Parthenon stands high upon a rocky emin-
ence, and from its western door you can see the
blue ^Egean Sea, the island of Salamis, and the
harbour of Athens, the Piraeus. Accordingly the
sea-god Poseidon is sculptured upon the western
pediment, with Cecrops, the first king and founder
of Athens, with the queen. Another conspicuous
figure there is the reclining figure of Ilissus, who
represents the stream that flows around the west-
ern side of the Acropolis. The Greeks, and the
Romans who borrowed from them, always sym-
bolized a stream or a fountain by a reclining figure,
half turned upon its side, and very frequently lean-
ing upon an urn placed horizontally, from the
mouth of which flows the wavy lines of water.
There is in the Vatican a Roman representation
of the River Nile as a colossal reclining figure
with long flowing hair and beard, like Zeus or
Poseidon, holding a paddled H is tributaries being
represented by a number of small Cupid-like boys,
who clamber and play about him, or nestle at his
side. The land of Egypt is typified by the sphinx
upon which the figure leans.
234
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
Father Thames has often figured in " Punch "
depicted by John Tenniel as an old man with long
hair and beard, not unlike his prototype, but some-
what degraded and worse for wear.
The Greek gods, too, and their Roman re-
presentatives were each distinguished by their
proper and appropriate emblems, as well as by
marked differences of character and physical
type.
Chronos, or Time, afterwards Saturn, is always
known by his scythe ; Zeus or Jupiter, the Thun-
derer, by his thunderbolt ; Poseidon or Neptune
by his trident; Helios by his horses, and Apollo
by his bow ; Aphrodite or Venus by the golden
apple won by the most beautiful ; Pallas Athene,
or the Roman Minerva, as goddess of the arts, by
her serpent, her lamp, and her owl of wisdom ;
Artemis or Diana by the crescent moon ; Hermes
or Mercury by his caduceus the serpent-twined
staff, which has in modern times become an em-
blem of commerce since Mercury was the mes-
senger, the fetcher and carrier of the ancients,
quick-witted and keen, and, according to some
legends, not over scrupulous. His rod and ser-
pents have reference to the story of his parting
two snakes in combat, in which might be read a
modern meaning of the individual gaining fortune
through commercial competition, though that is
not its usual signification. I only offer it as an
example of reading a new meaning into an ancient
symbol. Then, of course, Heracles or Hercules
bears the apples of the Hesperides, or the Nemean
lion's skin and his club. In the Hesperides story
of the dragon-guarded tree of golden apples, and
2 3 6
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
its three guardian sisters, we seem to have another
form of the tree of life and the fates. An interest-
ing Greek relievo in marble, enriched with mosaic
in parts, at Wilton House, shows the Hesperidean
VENUS AND PARIS. THE APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES.
A RELIEF AT WILTON HOUSE.
FROM
tree with the apples, and twined with the guardian
serpent, with Paris seated and Aphrodite approach-
Ing as if asking for the apple the prize of the
most fair.
In the ancient Greek story of Pandora and her
box so suggestive a subject to artists, and fruitful
237
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
in art we have the classical version of the fall
of man and origin of evil.
In the no less picturesque and poetical story of
Persephone (or Proserpina), the daughter of Ceres,
carried away by Pluto, the king of the underworld,
darkness, and death, we have a beautiful allegory
of the spring and the winter, since Persephone
was allowed to return every year to the earth for
a season, after she had eaten of the fatal pome-
granate tree which grew in Pluto's garden.
One might multiply instances of the symbolic
character of classical story and its symbolic em-
bodiment in Greek and Roman art, but we must
pass on to touch upon other sources and aspects
of symbolism and emblem in art.
We know that many of our old fairy tales have
a symbolical origin in ancient mythology, and have
taken new and varied forms and local colours as
they have travelled from their southern and eastern
homes, and become naturalized in the art and
literatures of different countries.
In such tales as " Jack and the Beanstalk " and
"The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," the climbing
hero ascending the heavens to destroy the giant
of darkness, in the first, the hero penetrating the
darkness and awakening his destined bride from
her enchanted sleep, in the second, for instance,
the old solar mythology has been traced, and if we
could trace the old folk tales back to their sources
we might find them all related to primitive myth-
ology or hero and ancestor worship. Thus do
the spirits of the remote past sit at our firesides
still, and kindle the imagination of our little folks :
and in the rich tapestry of story and picture which
238
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
each age weaves around it, elements from many
different sources are continually and almost in-
extricably interwoven, as if the warp of human
wonder and imagination was crossed with many
coloured threads of mythological lore, history and
allegory, symbolism and romance.
The early Christians, no less than the pagans,
felt the necessity for symbols of their faith; and
while at first borrowing considerably, and in-
corporating in their art forms belonging to the
other faith they were supplanting, gradually, with
the rise of power and influence, emblems more
peculiarly belonging to an expression of the
Christian ideal were adopted, or underwent con-
siderable transformation. The design met with
in the mosaics of the sixth century at Ravenna,
the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, of the two stags
drinking from a fountain, embodying the Psalmist's
verse beginning, "As the hart panteth for the
water brooks/' although from the imagery of the
older Scriptures, became an emblem of Christianity.
The peacock appears, too, in Byzantine art, carved
upon stone sarcophagi as an emblem of immortal
life, either from the many eyes its feathers always
open, or more probably because the eye feathers
are shed and renew themselves every year. The
vine, too, appears constantly as a Christian em-
blem, although with the Greeks it was sacred to
Dionysos, and represented to them the divine,
life-giving earth-spirit continually renewing itself,
and bringing joy to men.
Although the symbolic use no less than the
decorative beauty of winged figures had long "ago
been recognized, as Asiatic, Egyptian, and Greek
2 39
241
Brvgi Photo.}
FRA ANGELICO. ANGEL (UFFIZI, FLORENCE),
Srogi Photo.}
FRA ANGELICO. ANGEL (UFFIZI, FLORENCE).
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
art show, yet the Christian angel, both in its re-
fined, half-classical form, as developed by the early
Italian painters and sculptors from the thirteenth
century onwards, and in northern Gothic work,
became a distinct and beautiful type in art. In
the work of Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli
the angel figures are especially lovely.
No less distinct in its grotesqueness was the
mediaeval devil, although its origin was very pro-
bably the satyr of ancient classical art The
Roman satyr, with goat-legs and hoofs, bearded
head, horns, and tail, furnishes, in fact, a very close
prototype; and, being banned long ago as pagan
when Christianity was in hand-to-hand conflict
with paganism, would be sufficient to associate
such a form with evil. There are some fiends
represented in Orcagna's fresco, " The Triumph of
Death/' which are quite satyr-like, despite talons
and bats' wings. Although with the Greeks the
great god Pan is a mild and gentle deity -enough,
and though of the earth earthy, in a sense, yet as
symbolical of spontaneous nature, and simple ani-
mal existence, piping on his reeds by the riverside,
he always remains a favourite with the poet and
the artist. Signorelli, for instance, in a beautiful
picture (which our National Gallery somehow
missed the opportunity of acquiring), gives a fine
presentment of him.
It is interesting to compare the mediaeval em-
bodiments of evil with the ancient Persian sym-
bolical representation of a combat of a king with a
griffin, which may represent the conflict of Ormuzd
and Ahrimanes as the typical principles or em-
bodied powers of good and of evil,
244
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
The creature (representing evil) is winged, and
has birds' claws for its hind feet (like Orcagna's
fiends), and lions' paws for its fore feet, the body
of an ox or horse, the beak of an eagle or griffin,
in some instances, in others it appears with a bull's
head, and is certainly suggestive of power and
terror.
The favourite Greek conception of the centaur,
too, is an expressive symbolic embodiment of ani-
mal force, and the mythical sculptural combat in
the metopes of the Parthenon is again suggestive
of the conflict between the higher and the lower
elements of human nature.
Returning again to Christian art, we find the
image of the lamb, with the banner of the cross, was
the badge of the Templar ; and we find abundant
symbolism in the various emblems and attributes
of the apostles, saints, and martyrs, distinguished
by the various emblems of their evangel, conver-
sion, or martyrdom. The mystic symbols of the
four evangelists are well known to every eccle-
siastical designer the angel of St. Matthew, the
lion of St. Mark, the bull of St. Luke, the eagle
of St. John.
The winged lion of St. Mark has become the
distinguishing badge of the city of Venice, since the
evangelist was supposed to be buried in the great
church dedicated to his name. Its image in bronze
upon the column in the Piazza impresses itself upon
the eye and imagination of every visitor, while upon
the companion columns we see the patron saint of
the ancient republic St. Isidore, with thecrocodile.
Placed there in 1 3 2 9 , th e statue recalls the early days
of Venice, and suggests its connection with the East.
246
TTTT-. n -'mnmrnrTii iW^nm^jij
COMBAt-
From Perrot .Ctaip;e?-Hist.of .
rJa*irm <* Coste
247
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
Now national heraldry is often derived from
the bearings of families or chiefs. Of such is our
royal standard with its Plantagenet leopards and
red lion of the Scottish kings. Though in the
Irish harp we seem to get a purely national em-
blem, strictly speaking it is the heraldic bearing
of one of the four provinces Leinster.
These heraldic bearings and badges had their
origin in very remote times, and take us back
to earliest forms of human society, to the gens,
and the tribe, who named themselves after some
animal or plant, and adopted it as the distinguish-
ing mark and ensign of the family to which they
belonged, or to such primitive times as we read
of in Mr. William Morris's " Roots of the Moun-
tains '" and " House of the Wolfings," where he
speaks of " The House of the Steer" and " The
House of the Raven." The distinguishing badges
would be carved or painted over the porch, and
borne upon the shield of the chief and the banner
in battle.
In feudal times the practice was continued until
family heraldry, owing to intermarriage, became
very complicated, and family shields much quartered.
Distinctness and definite characterization of
form were highly necessary, since in battle it was
important to distinguish your enemies from your
friends, and the banner of the chieftain, the knight,
or king, would be the rallying point for their fol-
lowers and retainers.
Heraldry became regulated . by strict rules, and
is now called a science, though its vitality and
meaning have departed, except in an antiquarian
and archaeological -senge. It has, however, a cer-
248
TYPICAL'
* OF- SH 1 ELDS*
Roman.
Shield (Scu-tum.;
- * ' -olomn.
249
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
tain decorative value to the designer, as illustrating
the principle of counterchange of colours, and from
the heraldry of the mediaeval period much may be
learned in point of decorative treatment.
The shield itself varies considerably in form.
There is the round shield of the ancients used
both by Greeks and Norsemen. This with the
Greeks had pieces cut out at the sides sometimes.
There was also a moon-shaped shield, similar in
form to the shield used by our old invaders the
Danes. Then we get the parallelogram, kite-
shaped and oval shields of the Romans; the kite-
shaped shield of the Normans ; the lancet pointed
shield, cut square at the top, of the first crusades.
The Gothic shield becomes more variously hol-
lowed and shaped with the development of plate
armour, and in the fifteenth century frequently has
a space cut out on the outer edge to allow of the
tilting lance of the knight passing through without
interfering with the guard. In Renascerice times
there was a revival of classical and fanciful forms
in shields, and a return to its original form in the
escutcheon, the term being derived from the Latin
(cutis) word for skin or hide, which covered the
ancient shields : but with the use of fire-arms
shields declined, until the small steel buckler for
the short-sword became its last working repre-
sentative.
The character and the art of heraldic devices
varies very much according to these changes in
methods of warfare, and was also affected by the
state of the arts generally.
We have only to compare the bold and frank
heraldry of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
250
SICILIAN SILK TISSUE. TWELFTH CENTURY (SOUTH
KENSINGTON MUSEUM).
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
with the coach- painters heraldry of the present
to realize the great change in feeling. Compare
a Plantagenet lion with a Victorian one, a mediaeval
griffin with a nineteenth century specimen.
The Gothic heraldic designer felt he must be
simple and bold for the sake both of distinctness
and ornamental effect. He emphasized certain
features of his animals : he insisted very much,
for instance, upon the claws of the lion, its mane
and tail, its open mouth and tongue ; in short, he
felt it was his first business to make a bold and
striking pattern, and whatever the forms of his
heraldry, they were controlled by this feeling.
Heraldic devices formed a large part or the
ornamental design of the Middle Ages in all kinds
of materials. They were abundantly ^used in
dress patterns and in hangings and textiles of all
kinds. In the beautiful Sicilian silk stuffs, for
instance, a leading feature of the repeat often con-
sists of an emblematic or heraldic device of animals
or birds, which give character and agreeable
massiveness to the pattern.
Mediaeval brasses afford many beautiful exam-
ples of heraldic treatment. Indeed, for ornamental
feeling, expressed by very simple means and
under very limited conditions, those of the thir-
teenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries afford,
beautiful instances, which may be most profitably
studied by designers of all kinds. Mr. Creeny's
book on the Continental brasses may be recom-
mended as containing many very beautiful examples
from his own rubbings, notably from Belgium.
Two specimens are given in Chapter VIII.
But the love of symbol and emblem did not
252
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
expire with the vigour of heraldic design. Indeed,
a certain impetus was given to it by the invention
of printing, which, diverting it into another channel,
seemed to give it fresh life in association with
literature. The sixteenth century was remarkable
for its love of allegory and emblem, which was no
doubt stimulated by the opening up of the stores
EX BELLO PAX.
(From Alciati's " Emblems, 3 ' 1522.)
of classical lore at the Renascence, and by the
general stir and activity of thought of a time of
transition, when new and old ideas were in conflict
or in process of fusion. Life was full of variety,
contrast, hope, fear, strife, love, art, romance and
poetry, learning and the beginnings of scientific
discovery. Out of the seethings of such elements,
joined with the relics of mediaeval nawetS and
quaintness, came into existence the emblem book,
2 53
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
which offered compact pictorial epigrams, by means
of the woodcut and the printing press, to fit every
phase of human life, thought, and vicissitude.
Holbein's " Dance of Death " was really a book
of emblems, and the subject was a favourite one
with the German sixteenth century designers.
Very ancient ideas reappeared in these books,
unearthed by scholars, from all sorts of sources,
from the ancient Egyptians onwards. Such de-
FORTUNE.
(From Alciati's "Emblems," 1522.)
signs as those of the pelican feeding its young from
its own breast, and the stork carrying its parent
on its back, constantly reappear; and also the
bees making their hive in a helmet, with the motto
Ex hello pax, which reminds one of Samson's
riddle of sweetness and strength.
The device of the crab, too, with a butterfly
between its claws, and the motto Festina lente
hasten slowly- is a favourite. The phoenix,
also, borrowed from ancient Egypt, but nowadays
generally associated with life insurance. Fortune,
254
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
with the sail of a ship standing on a globe, and
sometimes a wheel, floating in a tempestuous sea,
to express her fickleness and uncertainty, often
appears. The fate of Ambition, in the fable of
Phaeton falling from Apollo's car; the snake in
the grass Latet anguis in kerba ; labour in vain,
a man pouring water into a sieve, the sieve held
AMBITION.
(From Alciatl's "Emblems," 1522.)
by blindfold Love, also figures; the ass loaded
with dainties and rich food, but stooping to eat
the thistle by the wayside, appears as a symbol of
Avarice. /Esop's fables were utilized, and classical
mythology, in fact all was fish to the moral net of
the emblem designer, and the multiplication of such
collections in printed books is evidence of the
moralizing, philosophizing tendency of the times,
and the love of personifying and imaging ideas,
255
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
Elaborate designs, such as one of Romeyn de
Hooghe (1670) following the tablet of Cebes,
B.C. 390, or the Latin version of 1507 allegorizing
human life as a whole, from birth to death, under
the device of a labyrinth or maze, with figures
wandering about in its walks, under different
influences, down to simple devices like the moth
AVARICE.
(From Alciati's "Emblems," 1522.)
and the candle, are comprehended in these emblem
books ; but it is only reducing to small compass
and to compact, portable, and popular form the
same spirit of quaint invention which covered the
walls and ceilings of great houses and public halls
and tapestries with personifications, like the splen-
did series of the " Triumphs" of Petrarch, Love,
Time, Death,and Chastityin our National Museum
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
at South Kensington, as well as endless embodi-"
ments of the seasons, the senses, the virtues, and
the vices. Emblematic art, however, like heraldry,
became overlaid with pedantry, and its artistic
interest died when its form became prescribed, and
precedent and rule took the place of original
invention.
The chief scope for symbol and emblem in our
time lies in the province of decorative design,
which in its highest forms may be regarded as the
metre or poetry of art. The designer, like the
poet, rejoices in certain limitations, which, while
they fix and control his form and treatment, leave
him extraordinary freedom in dealing suggestively
with themes difficult or impossible to be approached
in purely naturalistic form.
It is true we find emblematic art in very stiff
and degraded forms, and applied to quite humdrum
purposes. It is largely used in commerce, for
instance, and one may find classical fable and
symbolism reduced to a trade mark or a poster.
Still trade marks, after all, fill the place, in our
modern commercial war, of the old knightly
heraldry shorn of its splendour and romance,
certainly and given trade marks and posters
they might as well be designed, and would serve
their purpose more effectively if they were treated
more according to the principles of mediaeval
heraldry, since they would gain at once character,
distinctness, and decorative effect
Allegorical art has, too, a modern popular form
in the region of political satire and caricature,
often potent to stir or to concentrate political feel-
ing. This is almost a distinct province, to which
257 , s
THE SYMBOLIC INFLUENCE
many able and vigorous artists devote their lives
and show their invention in the effective way in
which the political situation is put into some piece
of familiar symbolism which all can recognize and
remember.
In the region of poetic design symbolism must
always hold its place. When the artist desires to
soar a little above the passing moment to suggest
the past, to peer into the future ; when he looks
at human life as a complete whole, and the life of
the race as an unbroken chain ; when he would
deal with thoughts of man's origin and destiny, of
the powers and passions that sway him, of love,
of hope and fear, of the mystery of life and nature,
the drama of the seasons, he must use figurative
language, and seek the beautiful and permanent
images of emblematic design.
258
CHAPTER VIIL OF THE GRAPHIC
INFLUENCE, OR NATURALISM IN
DESIGN
graphic influence!" my readers may
exclaim, u what existence has design apart
from this, since the depicting power with what-
ever pencil, brush, modelling tool, chisel, pen is by
its very nature bound up with it ? "
That is quite true, yet for all that there is
discernible a very distinct line of cleavage in art,
a distinction of spirit and aim which seems to have
divided or characterized artists and epochs from
the very earliest.
I have often alluded to the drawings of the
prehistoric cave men. These graphic outlines of
animals, although generally incised upon the
handles of weapons, always appear to me to
indicate the purely naturalistic aim as distinct
from the ornamental sense, as if the first object of
the primitive artist had been to get as exact a
profile as possible of the animals he knew ; just as
a modern artist, with superior facilities of pencil
and paper, might make sketches at the Zoological
Gardens without any idea of making them parts
of a decorative design. The main difference
seems to be that in purely graphic or naturalistic
drawing individual characteristics or differences
* ' ' ' . -259
PREHISTORIC GRAPHIC ART OF THE CAVE MEN.
26O
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
are sought for, while in ornamental or decorative
drawing typical forms or correspondences axe sought
for.
In the course of the development of historic art
in different countries and among different peoples,
under different social and political systems, we
PREHISTORIC GRAPHIC ART OF THE CAVE MEN.
may yet discern a kind of strife for ascendency
between these two principles, which still divide
the world of art ; and though in the most perfect
art the two are found reconciled and harmonized,
as being really two sides of the same question,
the general feeling for art seems to swing from
one side to the other, like the tides in ebb and
flow. At one time human feeling in art seeks to
261
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
perpetuate types, symbols, and emblems of the
wonder of life and the mysteries of the universe,
as in the art of ancient Egypt. At another its
interest is absorbed in the representation of
individual characteristics and varieties, striving to
follow nature through her endless subtleties and
transformations, as in our own day ; when the
different aims inspiring our artists might be set
down as
(r) The desire to realize, or to represent
things as they are.
(2) The desire to realize, or to represent
things as they appear to be.
Under whatever differences of method or material,
I believe it will be found that this real difference
of mental attitude behind them accounts for the
varieties we see, that is to say, in any genuine
and thoughtful work.
Every sincere artist naturally desires to realize
his conception to the best of his ability, in the
most harmonious and forceful way ; but in the
course of the development of a work of art of any
kind there are problems to be solved at every
turn.
Is it a piece of repeating surface ornament we
are designing ? We feel we must subordinate parts
to the whole, we must see that our leading
structural lines are harmonious, we cannot empha-
size a bit of detail without reference to the total
effect. We may find the design wants simplifying,
and have to strike out even some element of
beauty. Such sacrifices are frequently necessary.
Our love of naturalism may induce us to work up
our details, our leaves and flowers, to vie with
262
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
natural appearance in full light and relief, until
we find we are losing the repose and sense of
quiet planes essential to pattern work, and getting
beyond the capacities of our material, so that we
may realize that even skill and graphic power
may be inartistic if wrongly applied or wasted in
inappropriate places.
Is it a landscape we desire to transcribe or
express upon paper or canvas ? Sun and shadow
flit across it, changing every moment dark to
light and light to dark, so that the general
emphasis and expression of the scene constantly
vary, like the expression of a human face, as we
watch it. Which shall we choose ? Which seems
the most expressive, the most beautiful? Again,
shall we content ourselves with a general super-
ficial impression, leaving details vague ? Shall
we aim at truth of tone, or truth of local colour ?
Shall we dwell on the lines of the composition ?
Shall we spend all our care upon getting the planes
right, or rely for our main interest upon light and
shade and delicate definition of detail ?
All these different problems belong to graphic
representation of nature, to graphic methods of
drawing and design, and the work of different
artists is distinguished usually by the way in
which they seem to feel the particular aspect or
truth on which they mostly dwell in their work.
Even the most abstract symbolic or ornamental
drawing in pure outline must have some graphic
quality, though intentionally limited to the expres-
sion of few facts.
The method by which an ancient Egyptian
painter or hieroglyphic carver blocked out a
263
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE ^
vulture or a hawk, relying either solely on truth
of mass or silhouette, or on outline and emphatic
marking of the masses of the plumage, or the
salient characteristics, such as claws and beak,
although extremely abstract, was full of natural
truth and fact as far as it went, and left no doubt
as to the birds depicted.
Something of the same kind of quality is found
in Japanese drawings of birds, with less severity
and monumental feeling. The graphic or natura-
listic feeling is strongest and the individual acci-
dents are dwelt upon. In modern European
natural history drawings of birds and animals, we
often lose this bold graphic sense of character in
the general aspect, while small superficial details
of plumage and textures are carefully attended to.
There is often less life though actually more
likeness. The general tendency in the develop-
ment of the art of a people seems to have been
from the formal, monumental, and symbolic type
264
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
llJi UJK.ArJH.lL, IIN F Ju U IldN L,JS
of representation and design in strict relation to
architectural structure and decoration, towards
freer naturalism, individual portraiture, and a
looser graphic style.
We may trace this tendency even in the strictly
A FOWLER. WALL PAINTING. NINETEENTH DYNASTY
(BRITISH MUSEUM).
monumental and stereotyped art of ancient Egypt,
which notably in the portrait sculpture even of
the ancient empire is remarkable for extraordinary
realism ; and in the wall paintings of the later
period of the Theban empire (as in the tomb of
Beni Hasan), which show considerable freedom
and vitality.
265
JAPANESE GRAPHIC ART. FROM " THE HUNDRED BIRDS OF BARI."
266
JAPANESE GRAPHIC ART. FROM " THE HUNDRED BIRDS OF BARI."
267
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
A most notable example of realism is the
famous "Scribe" in the Louvre, a coloured
statuette, believed to date from the fifth or sixth
dynasty, of extraordinary vitality. The eyes con-
sist of an iris of rock crystal, surmounting a
metal pupil, and set in an eyeball of opaque
white quartz.
Greek sculpture, again, shows a gradual deve-
lopment from the archaic period, in which it
resembles early Asiatic art, up to the refinement,
freedom, and beauty of design of the Phidian
period, when the balance between naturalistic
feeling and monumental feeling appears to have
been perfect. Then later, as the result of a desire
for more obvious naturalism and dramatic expres-
sion, we get quite a different feeling in the sculptures
of the frieze of the great altar at Pergamos, which
represents the strife of the gods and the Titans
a tremendous subject, worked out with extraordi-
nary power, skill, and learning in alto relievo ; but
despite the energy and dramatic movement, after
the delicacy and reposeful beauty of the Parthenon
sculptures, we feel that these qualities have been
gained at a considerable cost and loss; but it is
interesting as representing the more realistic and
dramatic side of Greek art. 1
But the grace and charm of Greek art never
seemed really to die out. All the best Roman
art was inspired by it, if not actually carried out
by Greek artists; and, owing to Greek colonies,
Greek traditions had long been naturalized in
1 The original slabs are in the Berlin Museum, but casts of
some may be seen at South Kensington.
268
EGYPTIAN SCRIBE, PORTRAIT STATUETTE.
PYNASTY (LOUVRE).
FIFTH OR SIXTH
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
Italy, where they found a congenial soil. Fine
portrait sculpture was done in the imperial period
as the Augustus and the head of Julius Caesar and
many other well-known busts testify. Also the
truth and beauty of some of their animal sculpture
we may see in the fine style of the frieze of
sacrificial animals discovered in 1872 in the
Forum. We seem to see the Greek spirit in the
decorative splendour of the Byzantine period, and
again, in Italian dress, inspiring the painters and
sculptors of the early Renascence, in the work or
Giotto, Ghiberti, and Donatello for instance.
With the development of Gothic architecture in
the thirteenth century a new and distinct feeling
for naturalism arose, which influenced through
architecture all the arts of design. In fact, all
through the Gothic period design seems to have
had more the character of a vital organic growth,
controlled by a certain tradition and the influence
of architectural style, yet within these limits and
those of the material 'of its expression developing
an extraordinary freedom both of invention and
graphic power, which culminated at the end of
the fifteenth century, or was perhaps absorbed by
the classicism of the Renascence. Thirteenth
century Gothic sculpture at its best, as we find it
in France, has almost the simplicity, grace, and
natural feeling of Greek work. This may be seen
in the figures from the west front of Auxerre
Cathedral, and also in the porch of Amiens ; and
in the portrait effigies of this period and onwards
through the three centuries in those of. our own
cathedrals and churches we find abundant evidence
of graphic power in careful and characteristic
270
ffi
i-<
Q
8
P
W
P<
H
a,
8
.,
I
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
portraiture, united with beauty of design in detail
and decorative effect.
SCULPTURE FROM AMIENS CATHEDRAL. FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
What we should call realism comes out wonder-
fully in the treatment of the statue of St. Martha at
St. Urbain, Troyes, a work of the fifteenth century.
273 T
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE _
Gothic art, too, was a familiar art, intimate and
sympathetic with human life in all its varieties.
In the beautiful illuminated Psalters, Missals,
Books of Hours, and chronicles of the Middle
Ao^es, the life of those days is presented in bright
and vivid colours. We see the labourers at
work in the fields, ploughing, sowing, reaping,
threshing, treading the wine-press. We see the
huntsman, the fisherman, and the shepherd; the
scribe at his work, the saint at his prayers, the
knight at arms. The splendour and pomp of
jousts and tournaments, with all their bright
colour and quaint heraldry; we see the king in
his ermine, and the beggar in his rags, the monk
in his cell, the gallant with his lute delicate
miniatures often set in burnished gold, and adorned
with open fret-work or borders of flowers and
leaves.
These borders in course of time from a purely
fanciful ornamental character become real leaves,
flowers or fruit, as in the Grimani Breviary, attri-
buted to Memling, the famous Flemish painter,
where the borders are in some pages naturalistic
paintings of leaves and berries, birds and butter-
flies, on gold grounds with cast shadows. Here
we get the naturalistic feeling dominating again
and the pictorial skill of the miniaturist triumphing,
but the effect is still rich and ornamental.
When the printing press in the middle of the
fifteenth century began to rival the scribe with
his manuscript, it offered in the woodcut a new
method to the artist, which led to a new develop-
ment of graphic power and design by means of
line and black and white, though at first intended
274
ST. MARTHA (ST. UREAJN, TROVES).
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
MEMLING. "DELIVERANCE OF ST. PETER" (GRIMANI
BREVIARY).
merely as a method of furnishing the illuminator
with outlined designs as book illustrations and
ornaments to be filled in with colour and gold.
276
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
MEMLING. "DAVID PLACING THE ARK IN THE TABERNACLE"
(GRIMANI BREVIARY).
The black and white effect, however, grew to
be liked for its own sake : not only was it found
to afford a considerable range of decorative effect
277
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
by different treatment- of line and solid black,
but the graphic designer found in the rich vigorous
woodcut line a suggestive and emphatic means of
expression. The best artists of the time gave
themselves to the work, and notably in Germany,
the home of the invention of printing itself.
Cologne, Mainz, Augsburg, Ulm, Nuremberg were
all famous centres of activity in the printer's art,
as well as Venice and Florence, Basle and Paris.
Up to the end of the fifteenth century the
Gothic and ornamental feeling is still dominant
in the treatment of the design of woodcuts in
books, and most instructive and suggestive they
are in simplicity of method and line, and direct-
ness of expression.
Characteristic German work of Gothic feeling
and considerable graphic force is seen in the
woodcuts of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
designed by Michael Wolgemuth, the master of
Albert Diirer. In these vigorous cuts we may
plainly see the tradition of that Gothic feeling
and style of graphic design afterwards developed
in the work of the great German designer.
The splendid woodcuts of Dufer's " Apoca-
lypse," and of the " Little Passion," and the design
called "The Cannon" (1518), give us further
insight into his method of drawing and his graphic
power; and one can hardly go to stronger or
better examples for the study of expression by
means of bold line work, a command of which is
most valuable to designers in all materials, though,
of course, especially so to those who desire to
make black and white drawing their principal
pursuit For Durer's finer line treatment on
ALBERT DURER. "THE APOCALYPSE."
279
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
copper there is no better example than the
portrait of Erasmus.
IMAGO- ERASMI-ROTERODA
" *. AB 'ALBERTO -nvRFRn.A
ViVAM. ' EFFiGIEM DEUNIATA
A\ D X X V I
ALBERT DURER. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS, 1526.
The style of drawing shown in these woodcuts
was no doubt to a great extent determined by the
280
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
nature of the method of cutting the block. The
drawing on the smooth plank not on the cross
section of the tree, as in modern wood-engraving
was actually cut with a knife, not a graver. Each
line had to be excavated, as it were, from the
surface, the ground or white part sunk each side,
so as to make it take the ink and print the
impression of its surface sharply upon the paper
in the press. These conditions would necessarily
lead to a certain economy of line both as to
quantity and direction, and would favour the use
of bold outline and lines expressive of relief
surfaces or shadow arranged in a comparatively
simple way, and often running into solid black, as
in small folds of drapery and details. The drawing
was probably done with a reed or quill pen, which
latter still remains perhaps the best tool for
emphatic, graphic drawing on the scale of book
designs, since it offers the maximum possibility of
effect with the minimum of simplicity and economy
of means. Its only rival (though it may also be
regarded as a useful auxiliary to the pen) is the
narrow flexible brush point,, and this has the
advantage of spreading more easily into solid
blacks, though more likely to lead one into loose-
ness of style owing to its very facility.
Fine and firm graphic draughtsmanship and
rich design, with a fine sense of the decorative
value of armorial bearings and processional group-
ing, may be seen in the famous series of woodcuts
called u The Triumphs of Maximilian," in which
Albert Durer and Hans Burgmair co-operated.
That is to say each did a large proportion of the
designs. It was a very vast work for wood-
282
ALBERT DURER, " LITTLE PASSION." THE TAKING DOWN
FROM THE CROSS.
283
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
engraving. The scheme was in two parts, one
consisting of a design of a triumphal arch, in
general idea in emulation of the old Roman
imperial triumphal arches. This part of the work
HANS BURGMAIR. GROUP OF KNIGHTS FROM "THE TRIUMPHS
OF MAXIMILIAN. 7 '
consisted of ninety-two blocks which, when put
together, form one woodcut loj feet high by 9
feet wide. This part was all designed and drawn
upon the blocks by Albert Durer, and engraved
by Hieronymus Andreae.
284
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
The second part consisted of the triumphal
procession and the triumphal car of Maximilian
and his Queens, designed by Dtirer, as well as
other allegorical and heraldic cars and warlike
machines, and cars with officers of the court,
groups of knights in armour, men-at-arms of all
kinds, country people, and even groups of African
savages. Sixty-six of the designs of the procession
are due to Hans Burgmair.
It is noteworthy that the general scheme for
this triumph was first painted on large sheets of
parchment, which still exist in the Imperial Library
at Vienna ; and the woodcuts followed this more
or less in design, Dlirer's drawings being a freer
rendering, while Burgmair's are supposed to keep
more closely to the painted scheme of the minia-
turists, though it is quite possible they may both
have furnished sketches for the miniaturists'
version also. This great undertaking, however,
was never finished, and its progress came to an
end with the death of the emperor in January,
1519. The work was supposed to have been
commenced in 1 5 1 2.
For more purely ornamental effect in black
and white the rich, bold, yet sensitive outline of
the Venetian and Florentine woodcuts should be
studied, and their use of solid black.
The amount of graphic expression and even of
statement of natural fact which can be put into
pure outline alone is, of course, enormous.
The value of the graphic illustrative capacity
of the woodcut was soon discovered and utilized
by the writers of natural histories and compilers
of Herbals of the early days of printing onwards.
285
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
There is a beautiful Herbal written by Dr.
Fuschius (whose name we seern to have perpetu-
ated in the Fuschia). It was printed at Basle in
1542, and the drawings are fine examples of what
outline can do, and remarkable for a combination
of beautiful style united with natural truth and
decorative feeling. One of the horned poppy is
here given. The book is also interesting in the
portraits of the draughtsmen and wood-engraver,
w formschneider, given at the end.
The woodcuts of the plants given in the Herbal
of Matthiolus, where more lines of surface and
shadow are introduced, are vigorous and good,
full of style and character, and expressive of the
salient facts of growth. The same may be said
of those in our own Gerard's Herbal, though the
impressions are not generally so bright or good ;
but then it was produced during the decline of
the printer's art, in the later years of the sixteenth
century.
Though used for purely illustrative purposes,
much as the cuts put into modern dictionaries to
make certain facts clear to the mind, these wood-
cuts have always, over and above fidelity to the
main facts of growth and character, a sense of
design. They are not merely drawings of plants,
but they are well put together as panels or spaces
of design, and effectively though unobtrusively
ornament the page.
For expressive and sensitive line and touch in
the rendering of flowers, the Japanese artists are
remarkable, and their books, printed from wood-
blocks cut on the plank in the old European way,
are full of spirit and suggestiveness. Drawn on
286
<#===-%
HORNED POPPY. FROM: FUCHSIUS' "DE HISTORIA STIRPIUM,"
. IS42-
JAPANESE PLANT DRAWING. WOODCUT PRINTED IN COLOUR.
288
JAPANESE PLANT DRAWING. WOODCUT FROM A BOTANICAL WORK.
289 u
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
the wood with a pointed brush, which is occasion-
ally spread to yield solid black, or turned sideways,
or dragged, to vary the quality of the line, they
show that extreme ease and facility in the
expression of form by simple means which only
long practice, direct work, and intimate knowledge
and close observation of nature could produce.
The added flat and delicate tints of colour enhance
the effect and give them a decorative beauty
entirely their own, though planned in -the spaces
they occupy in a totally different spirit from the
old Herbal woodcuts we have been considering.
They belong in the main rather to the second
point of view or artistic impulse in art, which I
characterized at the beginning as the desire to
represent without prepossession the appearances
of things ; which delights in accidents, in unexpect-
edness, and sometimes, it must be confessed, in
downright ugliness and awkwardness, it seems to
me w hat in short is sometimes called " impres-
sionism," which has been largely influenced by
Japanese art
Mediaeval brasses are often very fine in the
quality and use of outline, and show a wonderful
amount of exact characterization in portraiture,
as well as beauty of ornamental effect in the use of
plain surfaces relieved' upon rich pattern work, and
good disposition of draperies. Those of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, more especially
the Belgian examples, are very useful to study
for these things, as well as for the fine taste, the
simplicity, and the broad artistic feeling shown
under the strict limitation of the material, while
they are remarkable for extraordinary delineation
290
BRASS OF JORIS DE MUNTER AND WIFE (BRUGES, 1439). FROM
CREENY'S "MONUMENTAL BRASSES."
291
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
of character by very simple means the lines and
sunk parts being incised in the smooth brass plate
and filled in with black encaustic substance, while
the colours of the heraldry are frequently enamelled.
Note the beautiful lines of the drapery in the
example given from Bruges, and the fine relief of
the figures upon the rich diapered ground. In
England the figures and borders were cut out in
the brass and inserted' in the stone slab, which
formed the background ; but the Flemish brasses
show a different treatment, the figures ^ being
relieved upon a rich diapered ground, also incised
upon the brass, which takes the form of a complete
panel or plate covering the stone slab.
One may trace in the later brasses the efforts
of the designer to gain more relief and graphic
emphasis in his figures by introducing lines of
shading and cross lines and greater complexity
generally, as well as a tendency to escape the
limits of the panel, no doubt under the influence
of the rising power of pictorial art, which from the
Renascence onwards seems to have dominated by
its influence all the other arts. But in the case
of brasses the beauty of design, the charm and
simplicity of the earlier treatment, as well as the
rich decorative effect, disappear with the attempt
to render complexities of effect and qualities of
drawing for which the material and purpose were
unsuited.
The same change of feeling left its mark upon
the sculptor's work in sepulchral monuments and
effigies, which, in the Gothic period up to the end
of the fifteenth century, are frequently refined and
beautiful pieces of delicate portraiture, wrought
292
KING ERIC MENVED AND QUEEN INGEBORG OF DENMARK (RING-
STEAD, 1319). FROM CREENY'S " MONUMENTAL BRASSES."
2 93
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
with extreme care and elaboration, with a strong
yet restrained sense of the ornamental value of
the detail ; but which, under the pictorial influence
and the search Tor more obvious and superficial
naturalism, became more or less forced in effect
and vulgarized in sentiment as well as execution,
and finally lost in classical artificiality and theatric
pomp.
In simple draughtsmanship and purely graphic
design, too, it is noticeable that, with the intro-
duction of the copper-plate and the attempt to
get in book illustrations something like pictorial
values and chiaroscuro, how, by degrees, vigour
of design and feeling for good line work was lost.
o <_> o
The revival of the woodcut even under Bewick
did little to help line design its former close
companion. Bewick and his school developed
the woodcut from the pictorial point of view, and
with the object of demonstrating the capacity of
the wood for rendering certain fine textures and
tones as against steel and copper. Their great
principle was the use of white line, not unheard
of even in the early printing days, as a frontispiece
to a German book (" Pomerium de Tempore,"
Augsburg, 1502) of the early sixteenth century
testifies.
Bewick's birds, which are remarkable for the
delicate, truthful way in which the plumage is
rendered, are as much the work of a naturalist
as of an artist, and they show but little^design or
feeling apart from this.
Although William Blake and Edward Calvert
made notable use of the woodcut, it was not
really until about the middle of the century that
294
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
any serious attempt was made in the direction of
the revival of line and pen drawing for the sake
of its expressive vigour, ornamental possibilities,
and autographic value. Probably it really began
with German artists like Schnorr (who did a
series of Bible pictures more or less after the
manner of Holbein), Alfred Rethel, and Moritz
Schwind. Rethel's two large woodcuts, " Death
the Friend " and " Death the Enemy/' are tolerably
well known and show strong draughtsmanship
and tragic force, recalling in their intensity and
vigour the work of Diirer and the old German
masters.
In England the revival of line design arose out
of the Pre-Raphaelite movement (a movement
certainly- influenced by the study of, early Italian
as well as German and Flemish art), and was
illustrated by the work of some of the leaders of
that movement themselves.
The drawings (engraved on wood by the brothers
Dalziel) by D. G. Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and
Millais, which illustrate the edition of Tennyson's
poems published in 1857, show perhaps the first
definite experiments in this direction.
The pages of the journal "Once a Week,"
started in 1859, were the means of the introduction
of new and powerful designers in line, such as
Frederick Sandys, Charles Keene, E. J. Poynter,
and Frederick Walker.
The first three showed unmistakable evidence
of a study of the manner of German Renascence
woodcuts, but it was allied to the matter of modern
thought and naturalism. With a freer graphic
naturalism of a different order, Walker united a
296
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
certain grace and sentiment derived from classic
sculpture, curiously mixed with a Dutch-like
LINLEY SAMBOURNE. REDUCED FROM A FULL-PAGE DESIGN
IN " PUNCH."
domestic feeling. In his black and white drawing
he shows, too, I think, to some degree the influ-
297
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCED
ences of the photograph, which since those days
has had so obvious an effect upon art and artists.
" Once a Week," which introduced these with
other artists to the public, was started by the
proprietors of" Punch/' which had long maintained
and still maintains an effective and legitimate field
for graphic drawing in line rendered by the
facsimile wood-block. The work of John Leech
and Richard Doyle is well known, the former,
with a light and somewhat loose touch registering
the fashions and foibles of English life from week
to week, with extraordinary spirit, humour, and
character, often conveyed by very slight means.
Sir John Tenniel, with his more serious and
heavier style, continued until recently to give his
familiar allegories of the political situation ; this
style again has, I think, been influenced by German
work.
Then Charles Keene brought in a kind of
impressionistic naturalism, expressed by a method
of his own, having a look of great fr.eshness and
directness, like crisp sketches from nature.
Du Maurier developed a different style, less
vigorous but more graceful in drawing, and with
certain leanings at one time to the romantic Pre-
Raphaelitism he used his pencil occasionally to
caricature.
In Mr. Linley Sambourne we see a designer
and draughtsman of considerable power. His
pen-line is vigorous and his drawing solid and
graphic, with considerable feeling for style, but
showing, I think, the influence of the photograph
in the rendering of light and shade.
In quality of line there is a certain kinship
298
PHIL MAY. FROM "PUNCH."
299
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
with the work of Mr. Phil May, a later addition
to the staff, though his treatment is very different.
He represents, indeed, rather the modern impres-
sionist feeling in line drawing influenced by the
Japanese ; his outlines are often extraordinarily
graphic, and convey a great amount of character
with very slight variation, and very little detail ;
but there is rather a noticeable tendency towards
awkward composition and ugly or repulsive types.
As a work giving some of the more serious and
carefully studied designs in line and black and
white of modern artists, engraved on wood, might
be mentioned the Bible projected by the brothers
Dalziel, a portion only of which was completed,
consisting of a series of fine drawings by Holman
Hunt, Madox Brown, E. J. Poynter, Frederic
Leighton, and others. They are more perhaps
in the nature of isolated pictures than book illus-
trations, but they are full of good and careful
work.
The earlier etchings of Mr. Whistler are full
of delicate drawing of the picturesque detail of
old waterside houses, as in the famous u Wapping,"
which even survived translation into a process
block in the " Daily Chronicle/'
We have now a vast public apparently interested
in, and accustomed to, graphic representation in
black and white, through the continual multiplica-
tion of cheap illustrated newspapers, magazines,
and books, and the continual invention and adapta-
tion to the press of cheap photographic and
automatic means of reproduction, which have
almost entirely displaced the woodcut as a popular
medium for the interpretation of graphic art
300
THE GRAPHIC INFLUENCE
In these cheap forms of pictorial art the
photograph continues to gain ascendency not only
as a medium for reproduction, but as a substitute
for original artistic invention and design. Now
while in the former province it is of enormous
practical value, in the latter, I think, it bids fair
to be extremely seductive and injurious to the
growth of healthy artistic taste and capacity.
Modern painting and draughtsmanship have
for a long time shown the influence of the photo-
graph (which for certain illusory qualities of
lighting and relief cannot be approached), and so,
no doubt, artists themselves have prepared the
way for its popularity, and perhaps even usurpa-
tion of the dominion of popular art.
So far, however, as photographic effect is pre-
ferred, and the mechanical tone-block is preferred
to the pen-drawing and woodcut, it means the loss
of character, of the personal element, of -distinctive
artistic style. It means, in short, the substitution
of scientific invention and mechanical method for
artistic imagination, observation, and variety-
surely this would be a most unfortunate exchange
301
CHAPTER IX. OF THE INDIVIDUAL
INFLUENCE IN DESIGN
WE commonly speak of ancient art, but of
modern artists. Straws indicate which
way the wind blows, and superficial habits may in-
dicate changes of thought and feeling which lie far
deeper. Interest has now become centred in the
development of individual varieties rather than
typical forms, whereas, as we have seen, it is the
latter character that distinguishes the art of the
ancients. In the great monumental works of the
Asiatic nations of antiquity names of individual
artists are lost, and in the art of Egypt and
Assyria and Persia they are of little consequence,
since certain prevailing types and methods were
adhered to ; and most of their work, as in their
mural sculptures, while distinct in racial character,
might almost have been executed by the same
hand Egyptian, Assyrian, or Persian, as the
case may be. Tennyson's lines regarding nature
might be here applied to art ;
" So careful of tfie type she seems,
So careless of the single life."
With the intellectual activity of Greece and the
development of her power as a state, the archaic
and purely typical period in her arts, while
.302
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
possessing wonderful harmony and unity, led to
individual development of artists, and, assisted no
doubt by the increase;* of writing and record;
famous names are handed down :; such as Ictinus,
the architect of the Parthenon, and Phidias, its
sculptor, whose name characterizes the finest
period of Greek art.
The ancient myth of Daedalus seems to show
that art was always a power among the ancient
Greeks, and Daedalus, who seems to occupy an
analogous position in southern mythology to that
of Wayland Smith in the north, may have repre-
sented, or his name and fame covered, whole
generations of artists and cunning craftsmen ;
following the tendency, still noticeable, by which
great reputations absorb smaller ones, and in the
course of time have attributed to them works not
really belonging to them at all. The name
becomes a convenient symbol for a whole period,
school, or group of workmen.
One can understand in primitive times how
'important the artist-craftsmen must have been :
the fashioner of weapons, the one learned in the
mysteries of smelting metal, of working iron,
bronze, brass and copper, gold and silver/and
having the power of making things of beauty out
of these, which became the revered or coveted
treasures of temples and kings' houses.
The old stories of the early Greek painters
Apelles and Protogenes show, too, at once the
tendency towards myth-making, and the old love
of talk about art, as well as the old and dearly-
clung- to popular theory that the beauty of painting
is measured by its illusive power; so that .the
303
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCED
realistic grapes of Apelles, which only deceived
the birds, were supposed to be outdone by the
naturalistic curtain of Protogenes, which took in
the critics. This tradition seems still to linger in
the minds of our scene-painters when^they present
us with those wonderful (and sometimes fearful)
drop curtains of satin, festooned with tassels and
cords of undreamed-of sumptuousness and mysteri-
ous mechanism.
The names and works of Praxiteles and of
Myron are well known to students of antique
sculpture, and these are but stars^ of greater
magnitudeamongahostof others less distinguished,
or less centralized in universal fame. Yet we
only know the Venus of Melos from the island
where she was discovered.
We know that the Greek vase painters fre-
quently signed their designs, and this has consider-
ably helped the historic criticism and classification
of that interesting and beautiful province of Greek
design, such as has been so ably done in the
works of Miss Jane E. Harrison.
In the Byzantine and early mediaeval period
we again see a great development of typical
symbolical and profoundly impressive art in archi-
tecture and decoration, but again names and
individual artists are largely lost. We do not
know, for instance, who were the designers of the
splendid mosaics at Ravenna,
With the dawn of painting ia Italy, however,
in the thirteenth century arose a personal and
individualized type of art in which names became
of immense interest This was no doubt fostered
by the rivalry of the cities, each independent,
304
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
under its own government; each municipality
proud and anxious to vie in the splendour and
beauty of art with its neighbouring, municipality.
This led to a wholesome emulation among artists
and very fine results, since there were abundant
opportunities in the great public monuments,
council chambers, and churches for the highest
exercise of the architect, the painter, and crafts-
man's art.
The ancient system of the master craftsman
working with his pupils in his shop or studio
prevailed. A man might learn the craft of paint-
ing from the beginning, the grinding of colours,
the laying of grounds, the mixing of tints, drawing
out cartoons, enlarging designs for wall-painting,
the painting of ornamental framework, and decora-
tive detail, and gesso work enrichment, and gilding,
miniature painting and the decoration of books,
altar-pieces, signs and shrines; perhaps embroidery
and textile patterns, banners, the furniture of
shows and pageants all these might be carried
on, perhaps under one master. The term painter
was not then specialized to mean either house-
painter or easel-picture painter. An apprentice
might thoroughly and practically learn his trade
in the ordinary sense of the word, but it would
depend upon his personal capacity and quality
whether he would become a master, whether his
name would be inscribed on the scroll of fame to
be a landmark for future historians of art.
The romantic tales and episodes in the lives
of painters which have come down to us are
always interesting, and in Italy, being the centre of
artistic life from the fourteenth to the end of the
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
sixteenth centuries, we find abundant lore of this
sort.
Ttn&t picturesque legend of Cimabue of Flor-
ence, first told by Lorenzo Ghiberti (who was
born in 1378), for Instance, finding the youthful
Giotto as a shepherd boy, while riding in the
valley. of Vespignano, about fourteen miles from
Florence, sketching the image of one of his flock
upon a smooth fragment of slate with a pointed
stone, and taking him to Florence as his pupil.
Cimabue. is commonly supposed to have been
the first to show a new departure in the direction
of greater freedom and naturalness of treatment,
the first whose work shows much individuality,
and emerges from the somewhat set and prescribed
traditions of the Byzantine school which character-
izes the earliest Italian painting of the Christian
period really influenced by the Greek church
mosaic design, which may be considered almost
as the swathing clothes of mediaeval painting in
Italy.
His altar-piece for the church of Sta. Maria
Novella was carried in procession through Florence
to the church a subject which has furnished a
theme for Lord Leighton's well-known and fine
decorative early work, too seldom seen.
Cimabue's portrait in the white embroidered
costume with a hood, appears in a group with
Giotto and other famous contemporaries, includ-
ing Petrarch and Laura, in a fresco by Simone
Memmi, a contemporary painter, on the wall of
the chapel of the Cappella degli Spagnoli at Sta,
Maria Novella.
But Giotto marks the real point of departure.,
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Coming straight from outdoor life, from the simple
country pursuits of a shepherd boy, it was signifi-
cant that he should be the first to introduce a new
spirit into art. Natural simplicity and directness,
power of dramatic narrative painting, dignity and
simplicity of style, and decorative beauty these
were some of the qualities? with which Giotto
enriched the field of early Italian art.
He became the friend of Dante, who pays him
a tribute in . the well-known lines in his poem
" II Purgatorio^ 1
Cimabue thought
To lord it over painting's field ; and now
The cry is Giotto, and his name's eclips'd."
GARY'S Dante.
And Giotto has left us an interesting portrait of
the poet, on the wall of the Podesta, or council
chamber of Florence, his first recorded work.
Giotto was, in fact, a fellow pupil with Dante
under the same master, Brunetto Latini, since
Cimabue gave him all the cultivation of his time
in books as well as art. The fame of Giotto as
a painter spread all over Italy, and his services
were required by the Church, and by rich and
great persons.
There is a well-known story, which throws light
upon his skill and certainty of hand, that once;
when an emissary from Pope Boniface VIII.
came to him for a specimen of his handiwork to
show to his master, Giotto took a piece of paper
and drew a circle in one stroke, without com-
passes.
The pope's emissary was disappointed at not
getting a prettier picture, but it proved convincing",
308
AUnari Photo.}
GIOTTO. PORTRAIT OF DANTE. (FLORENCE, PRETORIAN PALACE.)
309
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
and the legend passed into a proverb which runs ;
Rounder than the O of Giotto " Piii tondo che
I 1 O di Giotto. 1 '
The frescoes of the Arena Chapel at Padua,
representing the history of Christ and the Virgin
in fifty square compartments, remain among
Giotto's most famous works. The frescoes of
the vaulted roof of the lower church at Assisi are
also very fine.
" Here," says Mrs. Jameson, in <l Early Italian
Painters," " over the tornb of S. Francis, the
painter represented the three vows of the order
Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience : and in the
fourth compartment, the saint enthroned and
glorified amidst the host of Heaven.
"The invention of the allegories under which
Giotto has represented the vows of the saint
his marriage with Poverty Chastity seated in
her rocky fortress and Obedience with the curb
and yoke is ascribed by tradition to Dante."
He was architect and sculptor as well as painter,
and the design of the beautiful Campanile of the
Duonio at Florence is due to him.
Cimabueand Giotto's contemporary, the sculptor
Niccolo Pisano, was another distinguished artist
of the early Italian revival. He is said to have
been inspired by the study of antique sculpture.
A certain sarcophagus (Phaedra and Hippolytus)
by its life and movement is supposed to have
suggested the character which he sought in his
work. The dramatic vitality which he infused
into bis figures was certainly extraordinary, as his
famous pulpit at Pisa demonstrates. There was
some danger of losing monumental dignity and
3H
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
A linari Photo, ,]
NICCOLO PISANO. PULPIT (PISA BAPTISTERY).
repose, but it meant a return to nature and life
after a long period of restraint and convention
which had become dead.
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
The revival, therefore, was both salutary and
necessary, though it is not unnatural that painters
should have profited most by its effects, and that
painting should have become the leading and
popular art, because most immediate and familiar
in its appeal and the width of its sympathy and
range.
*^>
For vivid dramatic intensity of conception and
earnestness of purpose the work of Orcagna stands
out among the early painters of Florence. Andrea
Orcagna was the son of a goldsmith of Florence.
.The goldsmiths of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries were in general excellent designers, and
not unfrequently became painters, as in the
instances of Francia, Ghirlandajo, Verrocchio,
Andrea del Sarto. It was in his father's workshop
that Andrea Orcagna first learned his art. He
was born before 1310, and he painted at the
Campo Santo in 1332. His famous work was
the fresco still to be seen on the wall of the
Campo Santo at Pisa " The Triumph of Death."
It presents us with certain contrasts of life and
death, of pleasure and pain, of pomp and pride
and poverty, the severe life of the holy man, the
gay life of the pleasure seeker. There is a striking
group of huntsmen reining in their horses at the
sight of certain grim coffins containing great and
pompous personages in various stages of decay.
Grotesque fiends, too, are seen hustling wicked
ones into a fiery pit. Thus does the early painter
enforce the old moral. Thus does he paint the
sharp contrasts of life and death, the short life
and the merry one ; the careless worldling and
the rich and powerful finally levelled by death;
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
Atina
BENOZ2O GOZZOLT. DETAIL FROM FRESCO (RICCARDI CHAPEL,
FLORENCE).
while the higher spiritual life and the virtues of
self-denial and sacrifice are suggested by the pious
and primitive life of the monks.
318
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
BENOZZO GOZZOLI. " JOURNEY OF THE MAGI," FRESCO (RICCARDI
CHAPEL, FLORENCE).
Such subjects were favourites all through the
Middle Ages, and it may be remembered that
Petrarch about this time wrote his " Triumphs,''
321
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
one of which is named " The Triumph of
Death."
A gentler spirit is seen in the art of Benozzo
Gozzoli (born circa 1424), a pupil of Fra Angelico,
full of a love for nature, of trees and flowers and
animals, and of decorative beauty, a delight in
beautiful walled cities, in ornate dresses, in fair
fresh faces of youths and maidens. It is the joy
of life without the shadow of death, as of the
visions of a serene spirit that joins the hands of
the old pagan life and the new Christian ideals
and reconciles them in a world of beauty.
In the frescoes of the Riccardi Chapel at
Florence, Benozzo pictures, with loving faithful-
ness, the Medici princes riding out to the hunt in
splendid equipment, in a high upland and wooded
country such as one may find around Florence.
The subject was " The Adoration of the Magi,"
represented upon the side walls, "The Nativity"
being painted over the altar. The procession of
the kings with gifts is seen winding over the hills
Of the rich and varied landscape, interspersed with
groups like the princes, in Which Lorenzo the
Magnificent appears, and portraits of the painter,
his friends, and contemporaries.
The fresh youthful faces are full of the zest
and pleasure of life. The horses curvet and
prance in their proud trappings, and the hounds
pursue the flying deer, as if for pleasant pas-
time.
He gives us those charming groups of kneeling
angels also in the same chapel. Or he tells the
s-tory of the building of the tower of Babel, or of
Noah, at Pisa, or of St. Augustine, at San Gimig-
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Brogi Photo.]
SANDRO BOTTICELLI. DETAIL FROM " THE ADORATION OF THE
MAGI " (FLORENCE, UFFIZI GALLERY).
nano, with the same serenity and delight in
subsidiary incident and ornament.
Another Vfery distinct individuality in painting,
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reflecting the spirit of his time halfway between
mediaeval feeling and the revived paganism and
humanism of the classical Renascence, was Botti-
celli. He was a pupil of the painter-monk Fra
Filippo Lippi, and worked at Florence about the
middle of the fifteenth century. He was one of
the painters summoned to Rome in 1471 by Pope
Sixtus IV. to paint the walls of the Sistine Chapel.
He is spoken of as " our friend Botticelli " in
Leonardo da Vinci's treatise on painting ; but
until comparatively recently, as compared with
more often sounded names in the trumpet of fame,
the beauty of his work has been singularly
neglected.
That now generally admired and most poetic
and beautiful work, "An Allegory of Spring," in
the Accademia at Florence, was, about five and
twenty years ago, hung in an obscure position ;
but of late, and probably largel/owing to English
taste and criticism, it is now brought prominently
forward and is constantly copied. The lady who
is supposed to witness the masque stands in the
centre in a grove of orange trees, the ground
covered with flowers, among which is seen the
fteur-de-hice of Florence ; Zephyrus is clasping
the earth, and from her mouth fall flowers; next
to her Flora, or Spring, with a beautiful robe
embroidered with flowers, bears. roses in her lap
and scatters them. Then there is a group of the
"Three Graces" dancing, while Hermes, as the
herald of Spring, leads the procession. The
picture is supposed to have formed one of a set
of four. The second panel called " Summer,"
and showing Venus rising in her shell from the
3 2 4
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
sea, with a draped figure about to throw a robe
over her as she reaches the grassy shore, is in
the Uffizi Gallery. There is also a remarkable
allegory, "Calumny," in the same gallery, while
our own National Gallery contains a characteristic
Madonna and Child with angels. Botticelli's
Madonnas are always distinguished by a peculiar
expression of wistful pathos and a feeling unlike
those of any other painter. There is also a
charming small Nativity with a ring of angels,
besides the very splendid vision of heaven.
Botticelli also made illustrations to Dante.
A severer and more distinctly classically inspired
genius, yet with a certain northern hardness, we
find in Mantegna, who was born near Padua, in
1431. He came, it is said, of very poor and
obscure parents, and, like his great predecessor
Giotto, Mantegna was employed in keeping sheep.
Little is known of his early life, but he is found
later as one of the pupils of Francesco Squarcione,
a painter of Padua, but more famous for his
teaching, his school being at that time the most
renowned in all Italy, his pupils numbering one
hundred and thirty-seven. He was a great student
of the antique, and travelled over Ital;, and Greece
in search of remains of ancient art, obtaining casts
or copies of such sculptures he could not purchase
or remove, so that Mantegna had no doubt
exceptional facilities for the study of classical
sculpture, which had so marked an influence upor
his design.
He seems, too, to have been an indefatigable
worker, and drew with great diligence from the
statues, busts, bas-reliefs, and architectural orna-
326
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
rnents he found in the school of Squarcione. "At
the age of seventeen Andrea painted his first
C. Naya Ph
MANTEGNA.
FROM THE BRONZE MONUMENT IN THE CHURCH
OF S. ANDREA AT MANTUA.
great picture for the church of Santa Sofia in
Padua (now lost), and at the age of nineteen
327
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
assisted in painting the chapel of St, Christopher
in the Eremitani representing on the vault the
four evangelists/' He is said to have given to
these sacred personages the air and attitude of
Greek or Roman philosophers, the type in fact
confirmed by Raphael and afterwards generally
adopted by Renascence artists.
A curious change or blending of other elements
and a different feeling in Mantegna's work, soften-
ing the somewhat cold and rigid classicism, seems
to have been brought about by his association
with the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini, the
father of the two greater Bellinis (Giovanni and
Gentile), whose daughter Nicolosia he married
about this time (1450). This marriage with the
daughter of Squarcione's rival, as Bellini was
considered, and Mantegna's friendship with him,
seems to have offended Squarcione and caused
an estrangement, and even the active enmity of
his first master, and eventually led to his quitting
Padua. He painted some frescoes at Verona, and
was invited to Mantua by Ludovico Gonzaga,
and finally he entered the service of that prince.
He was invited to Rome by Pope Innocent VIII.
to paint a chapel in the Belvedere of the Vatican,
which was actually destroyed in the last century
by Pius VI. to make room -for his new museum.
This was after the ruthless way of the popes,
prodigal of painted walls, as when the beautiful
early Renascence frescoes of Melozzo da Forli
were removed to make room for Raphael's and
Giulio Romano's frescoes in the Stanzi.
There is a story of the discretion of Mantegna,
which, with a natural courtesy, seems to have
328
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
distinguished him personally. While working for
Pope Innocent VIII. it happened that the pay-
ments for the work were not made with desirable
regularity ; the pope, visiting the artist at his
work one day, asked him the meaning of a certain
female figure which he had introduced. Andrea
replied that he was trying to represent Ingratitude.
The pope, understanding him at once, replied :
u If you would place Ingratitude in fitting company,
you should place Patience at her side/ 1 Andrea
took the hint and said no more. It is satisfactory
to know that in the end the pope not only paid
up, but was "munificent" besides.
Finally, Mantegna returned to Mantua, where
he built himself a magnificent house painted inside
and out by his own hand, and in which he lived in
great esteem and honour until his death in 1506.
He was buried in the church of his patron St.
Andrew, where his monument in bronze and
several of his pictures are still to be seen.
The famous frieze of " The Triumph of Julius
Csesar" which is now in Hampton Court Palace,
having been bought by King Charles I. from the
Duke of Mantua was first designed by Mantegna
for the hall of the palace of San Sebastiano at
Mantua, and commenced in 1488, before he went
to Rome, he finishing it after his return in 1492.
There are nine panels or compartments in this
frieze : " They are painted in distemper on twilled
linen, which has been stretched on frames, and
originally placed against the wall with arabesque
pilasters dividing the compartments."
Mr. Alfred Marks issued a set of photographs
some years ago, but they are not very clear.
329
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE ^
There is a good set of Italian woodcuts in
chiaroscuro of the designs, by Andrea Andreani,
done while the frieze was in the palace at Mantua,
which have been engraved in various ways at
different times with very various results.
The whole design is extremely rich and
sumptuous, and full of the extraordinary designing
power and command of inventive detail so charac-
teristic of Mantegna.
"In the first compartment we have the open-
ing of the procession : trumpets, incense burn-
ing, standards borne aloft by the victorious
soldiers.
" In the second, the statues of the gods carried
off from the temples of the enemy ; battering rams,
implements of war, heaps of glittering armour
carried on men's shoulders, or borne aloft in
chariots.
" In the third compartment, more- splendid
trophies of a similar kind ; huge vases filled with
gold coin, tripods, etc.
" In the fourth, more such trophies, with the
oxen crowned with garlands for the sacrifice.
"In -the' fifth are four elephants adorned with
rich garlands of fruits and flowers, bearing on
their backs magnificent candelabra, and attended
by beautiful youths.
"In the sixth are figures bearing vases, and
others displaying the arms of the vanquished.
"The seventh shows us the unhappy captives,
who, according to the barbarous Roman custom,
were exhibited on these occasions to the scoffing
and exulting populace. There is here a group of
female captives of all ages, among them a dejected
330
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
bride-like figure, a woman carrying her infant
children, and a mother her little boy, who lifts up
his foot as if he had hurt it.
" In the eighth we have a group of singers and
musicians.
ANDREA MANTEGNA. PART OF "THE TRIUMPH OF JULIUS
C^SAR" (FROM THE WOODCUT BY ANDREA ANDREANI).
" In the ninth, and last, appears the Conqueror.
Julius Caesar, in a sumptuous chariot richly adorned
with sculptures ; he is surrounded by a crowd of
figures, and among them is seen a youth bearing
aloft a standard on which is inscribed the boastful
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words : ' Veni, vidi, vici ' ' I came, I saw, I
conquered/" l
The care and science of. 'the draughtsmanship
is as noticeable as the richness of the design,
The perspective being carefully given as of figures
actually seen above the eye-line, and with all the
sumptuousness and the mixed elements of the
design there is a certain restraint and monumental
severity which preserves its dignity.
Rubens, when at Mantua in 1606, was struck
by the splendour of the work, and gave a Rubens-
esque rendering of one of the compartments, which
is in the National Gallery ; but it loses the peculiar
dignity, serenity, and decorative character of
Mantegna's work in the somewhat florid and
bumptious style of the late Flemish master ; but
there is no doubt that Rubens entertained a real
admiration for the work, and was instrumental in
getting Charles L to purchase it.
Among Mantegna's chief works may be named
" La Madonna della Vittoria,"' now in the Louvre,
painted as an altar-piece for the church built by
the Marquis of Mantua, to commemorate -his
victory on the retreat of Charles VI I L from Italy ;
the Crucifixion, also in the Louvre, containing the
artist's own portrait in the half-length figure of the
soldier seen in front; the fine allegory of the Vices
flying before Wisdom, Chastity, and Philosophy;
and the beautiful Parnassus, which were painted
for Isabella d'Este, and filled panels in a room in
her palace at Mantua, as has recently been dis-
covered. Mr. Armstrong has had a fine large
1 " Early Italian Painters." MRS. JAMESON.
332
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
scale model of one side of this room set up in the
South Kensington Museum, to show the effect of
the decorations complete of Mantegna's allegories
(represented by copies). One must not forget
either the wonderful Circumcision, at Florence,
or, in our own National Gallery, the Virgin and
Child enthroned.
Besides his paintings there exists a multitude
of drawings, designs, and plates of his own engraving
(an art which he took up when he was sixty years
old). These include the fifth, sixth, and seventh
compartments of his own " Triumph of Julius
Caesar."
Perhaps the greatest individual mind of the
Italian Renascence was Leonardo da Vinci, who
was so distinguished in so many different depart-
ments of thought and art ; and while he summed
up and passed beyond the philosophical and
scientific knowledge of his age, and experimented
in nearly all directions, and was at once architect,
chemist, engineer, musician, poet, his fame still
rests upon his achievements in painting, which
are distinguished by a peculiar refinement, extreme
finish, and intellectual and poetic quality. He
was born at Vinci, from which he takes his name,
near Florence that Athens of the Middle Ages
in the lower Val d'Arno, on the borders of the
territory of Pistoia. His father was an advocate,
not rich, but able to give his son the advantage
of the best instructors in the science and art of
that period. He studied under Andrea Verrocchio
(famous for his superb bronze equestrian statue
of the Coleoni at Venice), himself uniting the arts
of sculptor, chaser in metal, and painter. There
333
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
is a story that Leonardo as a youth was set to
paint an angel in a picture of Verrocchio, and so
outdid his master that the latter never touched
painting again.
A weird fantastic vein which appears in Leon-
ardo's work, especially in his love for inventing
grotesques, comes out in the tale of the fig tree. A
peasant on his father's estate cut down an old fig
tree and brought a section of the trunk to have
something painted upon it for his cottage. Leon-
ardo determined to do something terrible and
striking a beautiful horror which should rival the
mythical Medusa's head (which he afterwards-
painted), and, aided by his natural history studies
and the reptiles he collected, he produced a sort
of monster or chimera which frightened his father
into fits and was therefore considered too good
for the peasant's cottage, and afterwards sold for
much. The peasant was persuaded to give up
his fig tree and put off with a wooden shield
painted with a device of a hart transfixed with an
arrow.
In a letter to the Duke of Milan, who had
invited him to. his court, he thus recites his
qualifications as an artist : " I understand the
different modes of sculpture in marble, bronze,
and terra-cotta. In painting, also, I may esteem
myself equal to anyone, let him be who he may/ 1
Of his paintings the widest-known, through
engravings, is "The Last Supper/' which was
painted on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican
Convent of the Madonna delle Grazie at Milan,
occupying two years, from 1496 to 1498 but the
fresco has suffered by time and restoration, and
334
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
but little of it is now left. There is a fine study
of the head of Christ.
The picture of the Virgin of the Rocks and the
a/rtrait, Madonna Lisa del Gioconde, in the
iLouvre, show the quality of his painting the
characteristic subtlety of expression, mysterious-
ness, and very elaborate finish.
After his return to Florence began his rivalry
with another gigantic artistic personality of that
time of wonders Michael Angelo, who was then,
in the early years of the sixteenth century, about
twenty-two years younger. The strong but jealous
individuality of both, in spite of admiration for
each other's genius, unfortunately stood in the
way of friendship and co-operation. They remained
rivals and competitors. They contended for the
painting of the great Council Hall in the Palazzo
Vecchio at Florence, and both prepared cartoons.
Leonardo chose for his subject the defeat of the
Milanese by the Florentine army in 1440 ; Michael
Angelo a party of Florentine soldiers surprised
while bathing in the Arno. Leonardo's design
was chosen, but he spent so much time in experi-
menting and in preparing the wall to receive
oil-painting, which he preferred to fresco, that,
changes of government happening, the scheme
was finally abandoned, and both cartoons, though
shown for several years, were finally lost, only a
copy of Michael Angelo* s remaining, and an
engraving from it.
The experimental nature of Leonardo seems to
have prevented his completing many works, while
he was full of projects of all kinds, too many of
which were never realized. The fine cartoon of
336
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
A linari Photo. ]
LEONARDO DA VINCI. STUDY FOR THE HEAD OF CHRIST.
the Virgin and St. Anna was never painted.
This cartoon is now in the possession of the Royal
Academy.
337 z
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
In 1514 Leonardo was, like so many great
Italian artists, invited to Rome by the pope
(then Leo X.), but more in his character of
philosopher, mechanic, and alchemist than as a
painter. There he met -Raphael, then at the
height of his fame, engaged in painting the Stanzi
of the Vatican. But Leonardo was ill-pleased on
the whole with his Roman visit. The pope was
said to have become dissatisfied with his speculative
and dilatory habits. His old rival, Michael Angelo,
was there, and finally he left and set out for
Pavia, where Francis I. of France then held his
Court. By him Leonardo was received with
honour and favour, and went with him to France
as principal Court painter, only, however, as it
proved, to die there on May 2nd, 1516.
In the work of Leonardo's great rival, Michael
Angelo, the art of the Italian Renascence may be
said to have reached its culminating point, and
after him decline sets in. It is as if the wonderful
structure of inventive artistic genius had been
piled by the life labours of generations to an
ambitious and dangerous height, and at last had
given way under the strain, or perhaps, like the
sun-flower, the same force which raises the
splendid rayed head and enables it to outface the
sun, at last forces it earthwards again.
Michael Angelo Buonarotti was born at Settig-
nano, near Florence, in the year 1474. His
ambition, personal pride, and masterfulness of
temper possibly may be traced to his progenitors
a once noble family. It was, too, against the
prejudice of his father that he finally decided
his career, becoming the apprentice of Ghirlandajo.
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
A linari Photo. ]
BUST OF MICHAEL ANGELO BUONAROTTI (s. CROCE, FLORENCE).
It was in the days when Lorenzo the Magnificent
ruled over Florence, and the young Michael
Angelo became a student in the Academy, founded
339
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
upon the strength of a collection of antique
marbles, busts, statues, fragments in the palace
and gardens of that prince. This alone would be
sufficient to give a strong classical bias to his
style.
There is a story of Michael Angelo's first
attempt in marble when he was about fifteen a
copy of an antique mask of an old laughing faun :
he treated this with a spirit and vivacity of his
own, and Lorenzo de Medici was struck by its
cleverness; but he said, "Thou shouldst have
remembered that old folks do not retain all their
teeth : some of them are always wanting." The
young sculptor at once struck one or two out,
giving the mask a more grotesque expression.
On this evidence of cleverness Lorenzo took
entire charge of Michael Angelo. With the marks
of princely favour, however, he was destined to
carry another mark, not so agreeable, ever after,
owing to, as some say, the jealousy of Torregiano,
a fellow pupil, who in a quarrel struck him, some
accounts say with his fist, some with a mallet, and
so gave him the broken nose which is characteristic
of the portraits of Michael Angelo. Torregiano
In consequence suffered banishment from Florence.
In his own account of the affray to Benvenuto
Cellini he declares the provocation came from
Michael Angelo. The favour and protection of
Lorenzo did not last long, as in his eighteenth
year Michael Angelo lost his patron by death.
It was Lorenzo's son Piero who set him one
wintry day to make a statue out of the snow
rather a wasteful proceeding for a Michael Angelo,
though, as the late Mr. Walter Pater has said,
340
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
there is a certain- reminiscence of the feeling of
the snow statue in the suggestive and half-finished
figures of the tombs. of the Medici.
With the fall of the Medici family and their
exile from Florence, Michael Angelo, as one of
their retainers, had to fly also, and took refuge in
Bologna, where he pursued his work as a sculptor.
At the age of twenty-two he produced the " Pieta "
in marble, now in St. Peter's at Rome.
In 1502 he was again recalled to Florence.
In 1504 took place the competition with Leonardo
of the cartoons for the Palazzo Vecchio, already
spoken of.
In 1506 Michael Angelo was called to Rome
by Pope Julius II. The pope employed him to
design the sumptuous sculptural monument destined
for his own tomb, for which the famous colossal
Moses was executed, and the slaves or prisoners,
but these, like the tomb, never were finished.
But his great work in Rome, the great work of
his life, was the decoration of the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel, the walls of which had been painted
by earlier artists of the Florentine school : Signorelli,
Cosimo Roselli, Perugino, Ghirlandajo, Botticelli.
The ceiling i^mained unadorned, and now Michael
Angelo was called upon to design his great sacred
epic of painting, having to deal with a space 1 50
feet In length by 50 feet in breadth, upon the
concave surface of a round vault, without any
architectural or structural enrichment qr division
save the windows. The theme was the fall and
redemption of mankind according to the Bible
history.
At first it appears that Michael Angelo, as it is
342
MTCHAEJ \NGELO. CEILING OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL.
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
said, doubtful of his own skill in fresco, called in
the aid of painters from Florence to^aid him in
carrying out his design, but was so disappointed
with their work that he effaced it and dismissed
them. He then shut himself up and proceeded to
devote himself to the gigantic work alone, preparing
the colours with his own hands, showing how
thorough an individualist he must have been,
contrary to the practice of his own time, which
was to work with pupils and assistants, He began
with the end towards the door, and in two
compartments first painted " The Deluge " and
" The Vineyard of Noah "; the figures are on a
smaller scale, "which he afterwards abandoned for
a larger, bolder treatment. He spent twenty-two
months in painting the ceiling, exclusive of the
time spent in preparing the cartoons. The work
was uncovered to the public view on All Saints'
Day, 1512.
The sculpturesque and architectural feeling
which, really stronger in Michael Angelo's work
than that of the painter, is very decidedly mani-
fested both in the general plan of the design and
in individual figures and details. In order to bring
so great a scheme into comprehensive form it was
necessary to divide and subdivide the blank ceiling
with painted architectural mouldings and ribs into
spaces and panels. The titanic youthful figures
placed between, upon the ledges and brackets of
the framework of the subjects, are very fine and
characteristic in style, and essentially sculptors'
designs ; each would work out as a separate
statue, though for all that each single figure, as
each figure of every group, bears a certain relation
344
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
to the rest and fills a harmonious and necessary
place in the scheme. The colour is subdued and
A linari Photo. ]
MICHAEL ANGELO. " THE DELPHIC SIBYL " (SISTINE CHAPEL).
quiet. It has a gray, cool effect in the chapel,
gray blues, pale greens and whites being much
345
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
Alinari fhoto,}
MICHAEL ANGELO.
TOMB OF GIULIANO BE MEDICI. FLORENCE.
used in the draperies, and the chief decorative
effect being gained by the opposition of brown
flesh tones to the broad, light marble-like frame-
work, or the landscape and sky backgrounds of
346
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
AUnari Pkoto.l
MICHAEL ANGELO.
TOMB OF LORENZO DE MEDICI. FLORENCE.
the subject panels. This great work was completed
by Michael Angelo in his thirty-ninth year.
Another great monumental work in which his
347
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
architectural and sculptural genius come out are
the tombs of the Medici in the Church of San
Lorenzo. The seated figures of Lorenzo and
Giuliano de Medici are placed in the recesses of
a Renascence arcade, in front of which are marble
sarcophagi, and upon the lids recline figures of
Night and Morning, and of Dawn and Twilight
respectively. They are very bold and powerful
in design, and extremely characteristic in style
and treatment, having a certain titanic energy
and tragic unrest, as well as pensive mystery, about
them, which belong to the strong personality of
their designer.
Poet, as well as painter, architect, and sculptor,
we see him moving amid the political troubles
and vicissitudes of his time, a proud and stormy
spirit, a man of extraordinary energy, which
impresses itself upon all his works. The designer
of St. Peter's, the painter of the Sistine, and anon
as engineer called to fortify Florence ; austere and
abstemious of habit, proud and imperious, and yet
tenderly solicitous for his aged father, and devoted
to his old servant Urbino, whom he tenderly nursed
in his last illness.
The great artist lived till eighty-nine, and died
in Rome, the scene of his monumental labours, on
February i8th, 1564,
As showing the alertness and activity of his
mind in old age, he is said to have made a drawing
of himself as an aged man in a go-cart, with the
motto, Ancora impara (still learning), a true
emblem for a great man who, in spite of his
knowledge, feels that in view of the unknown he
knows nothing.
348
THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE
These are a few, a very few, individualities out
of the drama of Italian art, briefly sketched, but
distinct as they are, they are not detached like
isolated statues upon pedestals from the character-
istics of their age. They are great because they
embody those characteristics; they are like rich
jewels strung upon a golden chain the golden
chain of inventive tradition which unites them
which, while leaving each artist free in his own
sphere, brings his work into relation and harmony
with that of his contemporaries, his predecessors,
and his successors. Some may prefer to take the
jewels separately and admire them without reference
to the chain ; but, I think, to fully understand
and appreciate the genius of individual artists one
must never leave out of account their relation to
their time, and its influences, the relation of their
particular art to the state of the arts generally ; for
among these are the factors which have contributed
to make them what we find them in their works ;
just as the colour and relief of a figure or a head
depends largely upon its background.
349
CHAPTER X. OF THE COLLECTIVE
INFLUENCE
IN my last chapter I compared tradition in art
to a golden chain, and the striking individu-
alities which arise from time to time as the jewels
upon such a chain. The history of art and the
evolution of design may be regarded either from
the point of view of the jewels or from the point of
view of the ordinary links ; and if we wish to take
a just and comprehensive view I think we must
not only consider the luminous points, but the
system the links by which they are connected
and related. Looking out into the clear night we
see a vast mass of brilliant stars of all degrees of
magnitude apparently flung into space without
order or relation, but the studies of astronomers
have revealed that they are the central suns of
systems around which revolve planets invisible to
us ; but these star-suns themselves become lost,
and merged in the countless myriads that form
the silvery cloud we call the milky way. So it is
in the history of art and the evolution of design.
At first we are attracted by the brilliant personalities,
surrounded by satellites, that seem to sum up in
their work whole epochs, and remain typical and
central points in the wide spaces of time ; but
further research reveals their relation to other
350
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
personalities not so distinct, on whom the full light
of popular favour has not flashed, and presently
we get beyond personalities altogether, and in. the
work of remote antiquity see only the results of
the labours of generations, purely typical forms of
art, the monumental record of races, of nations
of dynasties, the work, not of individual men, but
of collective man.
Of such we may find examples in the art of
ancient Egypt^ of Assyria, of Persia, and in the
archaic and primitive art of all kinds, from the
fragments of pottery from the plain of Troy to the
carved paddles of the Polynesian islanders.
The art and craft of building architecture, the
fundamental art, can only be traced back to its
primitive forms in different countries as practised
among different races and peoples. The origin of
its distinctive styles, and its principal constructive
features, were determined long ago under the
influence of climate and local materials, by the
collective thought and co-operative labour of man-
kind schooled by necessity and experience.
Yes, it is a history of constant adaptation to/
conditions and united labour and invention from
our primitive ancestor, who improved upon the
natural shelter of the tree by interlacing its pendent
branches with other branches and stakes fixed in
the ground; who burned theends of their timbers,
so that as piles they could be driven more easily
into the mud to support the platforms of the
wattled lake dwellings, when there were no steel
axes. From the early colonists of our race, the
Aryan wagoners, who perhaps took the idea of
the primitive gable and roof timbers from the tilt
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
of the wagon, or the supports of the tent-coverings ;
from the ingenuity of the Mongolian settlers by
the riverside, making the framing of their houses
and supporting their roofs by the bamboo, utiliz-
ing the hollow canes for the jointing and bracket-
ing of the supports, and terminating the ends
ornamentally by inserting grotesquely carved
heads. The chain of invention is unbroken up
to modern scientific engineering and calculated
principles of building construction, which but sums
up and systematizes the collective experience of
ages.
We see, too, the collective hand of tradition
and the adherence to accustomed forms in the
adoption or imitation of features of timber con-
struction in stone construction and ornament by
the ancients ; as, for instance, in the form of the
Persian capital from Persepolis, and in the dentil
ornament of classical architecture mentioned in the
preceding chapters.
Out of necessity springs construction ; out of
construction springs ornament. We cannot find
the individual in either, both being the result of
slow and gradual evolution, requiring long periods
of time and continuity of custom, life, and habit,
and the continuous associatedlabourofcommunities,
wherein the individual is of less importance than
the maintenance of the social organism. At first
the preservation ofthe gens, the tribe, the protection
and service of the village community, the handing
on of tradition and folk-lore, until, with conquest
and extension and consolidation into a nation,
settled industries, and religious faith and ritual, the
desire arises to clothe the mythical and spiritual
352
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
ideas of a people in permanent monumental form
and colour.
A cathedral represents the collective art, work,
and thought of centuries. The names of its
builders, its masons, its carvers, its glaziers, are
lost ; the heads and hands that carried out >the
work, whose invention and feeling, whose very life
have been wrought into the stone and the wood
and the glass, have left no other record. An
abbot's or a bishop's name may be given as having
planned or raised the money for this choir or that
porch at different times, but the artists and crafts-
men who did the work generally remain unknown.
They worked in their craft in harmony with the
workers in kindred crafts, and as brother members
of their guild, and instead of building up merely
personal reputations really evolved collectively the
distinctive architectural style and decorative types
of their age.
This is one reason why a Gothic cathedral is so
impressive. We see the growth of an organic
style, starting, perhaps, with the round arch and
massive Norman pier, and passing through the
transition to the lancet arch of the early pointed
to the moulded arch and the clustered shaft and
foliated capital, with the ribbed, vaulted roof
covering the long nave with a network of recurring
constructive lines, and meeting overhead in carved
bosses, or spreading into Tudor fans. Or we
may mark the gradual evolution of the window
from the round headed, deep-set loop-hole of the
Byzantine and Norman period into the long lancet-
pointed panel of geometric glass ; and see then
how by degrees the light, first divided into two by
353 AA *
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
a shaft, suggested the clustering of many lights
together, as in great western or eastern windows,
dividing them by mullions breaking into geometric
tracery in the pointed heads; and thus raising a
beautiful pierced screen of stone to hold the
coloured glass and reveal its splendour against
the full light of the sky.
Can we name the inventors of these changes,
the evolvers of these beauties of our constructive
art ? Do we not feel that by their very nature they
could not have been claimed by any individual
mind alone or have reached perfection in a single
lifetime? They are the natural result of a free
and vital condition in art, moved by the unity of
faith and feeling, wherein men work together as
brothers in unity, each free in his own sphere, but
never isolated, and never losing his sense of
relation to the rest
Thus we get the harmonious effect of a great
orchestra, where, though every variety of instru-
ment may be played, all are subordinated, or
co-ordinated, to the musical scheme, and produce
that impression of power and sweetness by cadences
that may be now soft as the whispers of the
summer winds over a field of wheat, and anon
sweep like a tempest with the fury of thundering
waves upon the utmost shores of sound.
The emotions produced by such forms of
collective art lift the mind out of the personal
region altogether; they are akin, indeed, to the
feelings awakened in the presence of wild nature.
We seem to hear the voice of Time himself out
of the caverns of the past, the song of life, like
that of a child in the sunlight, and the half-
354
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
articulate, pathetic murmur of the voices of birds
and beasts ; the hush of the wood at noon-tide,
the transfiguration of the afterglow, and the mystery
of night
In the primitive ornament of all peoples we find
the same or similar typical forms constantly re-
curring, the germs of pattern design afterwards
developed, complicated, and refined upon : the
chequer, the zigzag, the fret, the circle, the spiral
volute, the twisting scroll can we ascribe their
invention to any individual mind or hand ? Can
the mechanician tell us who were the inventors of
the wheel, the lever, the mode of producing fire,
the canoe, the paddle, the spade, the plough, the
vessel of clay, the axe, the hammer, the needle,
or even spinning and weaving ? Yet they are
inventions of incalculable importance to human
life, which without them could not maintain itself,
much less build upon them, as it were, the vast
and complex structure of modern invention, of
science, and of art.
A form in ornament 'once found, however, is
repeated. The eye grows accustomed to it, takes
delight in it, and expects its recurrence. It
becomes established by use and wont, and is often
associated with fundamental ideas of life and the
universe itself. Thus we get traditional ornament;
handed on from generation to generation, its origin
and meaning perhaps lost like the pictorial sig-
nificance of the individual letters of our alphabet,
which everybody uses, but which require a special
kind of study and research to explain their real
meaning and original forms.
Side by side with this liking for the accustomed
355
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
NATURAL VARIATION IN REPETITION OF ORNAMENTAL FORMS.
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN DRAWING ON THE BLACK-
BOARDj PHILADELPHIA.
this demand for the expected, appears to have
grown up another feeling, a love of change and
variety equally natural and human,
356
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
NATURAL VARIATION IN REPETITION OF ORNAMENTAL FORMS.
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN DRAWING ON THE BLACK-
BOARD, PHILADELPHIA.
In ornament variation may at first be unconscious,
and might have arisen from the natural tendency
of the hand to vary a form in repeating it (as our
357 : : '.
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE ^
own experience will tell us), while it requires an
effort to reproduce its exact counterpart This
tendency to vary the same form, in repeating it,
by different individuals is illustrated by the little
American children cultivating their facility of
hand by drawing on the blackboard. This natural
variation, having a rich and pleasant effect, is
encouraged until conscious and studied invention
and ingenuity of individual artists in the varying
of designs take its place.
Tradition in design may no doubt be largely
attributed to the influence of the workshop, or
what we should now call technical necessities, the
use of certain tools and materials giving a certain
character of their own in the rendering of form,
as one may see even in the case of such a matter
as quality of outline (important enough in all
design) if we compare the differences between a
form drawn with the pencil, the pen, with the
brush, or with charcoal. A certain typical treat-
ment becomes naturally evolved in the course of
practice. which seems proper to each method, while
the treatment is sure to be slightly varied in the
hands of every individual. Of course a strong
artistic personality may greatly modify tradition
in any art, though such an one is seldom entirely
free from its influence ; and the greatest artists in
past times have generally built upon it, and have
become what they are rather because of an existing
vital tradition admitting of individual variation.
This was largely the case, I think, with the
great masters of the Italian Renascence, some of
whom I spoke of in the previous chapter. The
general standard of excellence was maintained by
358
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
their contemporaries. A great individual artist
arises and only by degrees distinguishes himself
by his personal choice and treatment, his varia-
tion of practice or method, grafting on to the
stem perhaps some new rare flower. He raises
the standard higher, he imports new elements,
he influences tradition, and the lamp is handed
on.
Giotto's art would not have been what it was
but for the Byzantine influence under which he
was trained. Without losing certain fine qualities
of the dignity and serenity of the earlier art, he
infused fresh life and prepared the way for the
greater freedom and naturalism of his successors.
The various schools of painting are closely linked,
and if the links were complete we should perhaps
be more struck with the resemblances, the similari-
ties, than the differences.
The great structure of style is raised stone by
stone : the labour of generations of artists gradually
advances the standard of excellence. Now and
then a greater mind appears, and by some new
thought or method, fresh sentiment or point of
view, raises the standard higher, and so an epoch
is marked in art.
Great cleavages from time to time occur which
disturb the orderly progression and connection,
like cataclysms in nature earthquakes and up-
heavals which break the continuity of the geologic
beds and throw them upon different levels ; but
the strong social and collective tendency in man
is always to repair and reform, to re-unite scattered
fragments and to form new traditions both in life
and art.
359
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
In an age which has seen the development of
an organized industrial system of extraordinary
and minute division of labour under the factory
system, and has now entered an epoch of further
specialization of labour with the invention and
use of complicated machinery driven ^by steam
and electric power, in association with which
labour becomes not only specialized but almost
automatic, we perhaps hardly need reminding^ of
the collective influence, since for the effective
supply of the big world-market all products are
the result of collective human labour.
Such an organization of machine production as
every effective factory displays, of collective labour,
though not organized for the collective benefit,
but rather wastefully contending with other factories
for private profit-making in a fierce and unscrupu-
lous warfare of commercial competition such
organizations can hardly be favourable to the
production of fine and beautiful art. The art*
the wonder, the invention, if anywhere, must
really be sought in the means rather than the
ends. The machines which produce our wares
are marvels of ingenuity, of mechanical adaptation,
of economy of force, but the finished product^ is
often most depressing. One may see in ^ print
works, for instance, those wonderful colour printing
machines capable of printing ^seven, and even
twelve, colours from the rollers In succession upon
the cloth as it passes through, often turning out
extremely tame and commonplace patterns on
cheap material, which look much more interesting
as engraved upon the polished copper roller than
they ever do on the cloth.
360
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
Well, it may be said, the remedy is with us
with the designers. We have only to use our
invention in producing good and attractive designs,
adapted to the process and material, and the
factory and the machine will do the rest.
It is conceivable, certainly, that where the object
is solely to produce something at once beautiful
AXMINSTER CARPET WEAVING.
and serviceable, by a chain of associated and
intelligent labour, with the most ingenious machines
at the command of the designers, wonderful things
might be done ; but it is a question whether, if a
design be ever so good, we should not grow tired
of it if we saw it produced in enormous quantities.
Yet -that, after all, is the object of our factories,
of our improved machinery, to produce in enormous
quantities not primarily to supply the world's
361
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
needs either, but in order to sell at a^profit. Art,
however, is only concerned with quality to make
TAPESTRY CARPET WEAVING.
everything as good of its kind as possible, to seek
variety, beauty, appropriateness.
We have yet to see whether industrial production,
organized on the modern system, is equal to the
362
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
old handicraftsman with his simple methods, as
far as artistic results are concerned.
So far the Indian, with his hand-block printing
his pattern on his strip of muslin or cotton, or
dipping his tied cloth into the dye, produces more
artistic results than all our wonderful machinery.
Mechanical perfection is one thing, and artistic
feeling quite another, and the more as an end a
people seeks after the first the less it is likely to
care for or understand the other.
The chain of production, too, may be mechanic-
ally" complete, as in our best factories it may be
said to be as far as organization goes, yet we may
be still far from the finer sympathetic chain of
artistic association by means of which the best
work is produced. In this we must include the
stimulus of external beauty and harmonious sur-
roundings, as well as individual freedom.
Such a condition of things might have been
found in any craft's-guild, and seen in full working
order in any workshop of the Middle Ages.
Such an interior as is pictured by Etienne
Delaune, a celebrated goldsmith of Paris, as late
as the sixteenth century, of his own atelier, engraved
by himself, shows us a group of artist craftsmen
working together with all the tools and implements
of their art around them. Of the three seated at
the bench one is engraving or chasing ; another
at work upon a watch, drilling apparently; while
the third is doing some fine repousstwda. The
young man at the furnace is probably enamelling,
and a boy at the wheel appears to be wire-drawing.
A great variety of tools are placed in exemplary
order upon the walls pincers, pliers, files, shears,
363
w
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
hammers, punches, a small anvil, crucibles, and a
pair of bellows for the furnace.
There are still some crafts which are worked in
this simple artistic co-operative way, and have
undergone but little changes of method since the
Middle Ages. Indeed, one might say all the
finer artistic handicrafts; and it is noteworthy that
: the tools used are of the same type the sculptors
mallet and chisel, the painter's palette and brushes,
for instance, have remained practically unchanged
in form from time immemorial.
Those who have seen glass blowing and the
formation of glass vessels must have been struck
by the skill and celerity displayed by the craftsmen
at the furnace mouth, under very trying conditions,
and also by the necessity of effective help at certain
movements, when the molten glass is made to
revolve upon the bar by one man, while the shape
is given to it by another. The master craftsman
generally seems to have two assistants, but the
amount of co-operation necessary in forming the
vessels depends much upon their size, small pieces
being completed by one alone.
There are glass works still working, such as
those at Whitefriars, which have been there since
the sixteenth century. The circle of furnace
mouths, the ruddy glow falling upon the faces and
figures of the workers, form a striking scene. By
a skill of manipulation that might well appear
magical seen for the first time, the craftsmen
produce vessels of any variety of shape, constantly
returning the work as it progresses to the fire.
Though the work seems to lend itself to the
varying invention of the designer, they can repro-
365
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
duce the section sketched in chalk on a black
panel at the side of thevfurnace in a completed
form to exact measurement
GLASS BLOWING.
The art of the printer of books, to which so
much interest has of late been drawn, and which
has been revived as an art by Mr. William Morris
366
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
INTERIOR OF A PRINTING OFFICE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
(FROM JOST AMMAN).
at his Kelmscott Press, affords another instance
of the .'necessity of intelligent and artistic co-
operation.
367
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
To begin with, there is the paper ; a good tough
handmade paper, like drawing paper, is wanted
for rich and bright impressions of type or woodcuts.
This must be made from the best linen rags, and
each sheet is manipulated by the hands, by means
of a wired frame of wood dipped into the pulp
and cunningly shaken so that it (the pulp) shall
spread over the wires evenly to form, when dry,
the sheet of paper.
Then the type-founding must be ^ looked after.
Lettering of good form must be designed, and so
designed that each letter must be separate and yet
capable of forming words without undue gaps, and
also legible pages of agreeable type, good in the
mass and good in the single letters and words.
The type-founder and designer must therefore be
a man of taste and cultivation, he must have a
knowledge of alphabets, of early printing and of
historic MSS. and calligraphy, and he must be a
capable designer, able to appreciate the niceties of
line, the value of a curve, of balance and mass,
proportion and appropriate scale.
Mr. Morris had several typical ancient types
photographed upon a large scale so as to more
easily compare their design and structure, and
founded his own designs for his Kelmscott founts
more or less upon them, giving them, whether
Roman or Gothic, a distinctive character of their
own. This is about as near as one can get in our
conscious, selective way to old methods, in which
individuals from time to time introduced small
variations, while adhering to the general style
and form, so that the collective traditional in-
fluence and historic continuity is preserved with
368
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
the cumulative advantages of individual inven-
tion.
Of the placing of the type-page upon the paper,
regarding the double page of the open book as
the true unit, I have before spoken, and a great
deal of art conies into the setting of the type, so
as to disperse it without leaving "rivers" or gaps-
much as a designer of a repeating pattern would
seek to avoid running into awkward accidental
lines. Constructive principle would here come in,
and should be serviceable to the printer in enabling
him to preserve a pleasant and harmonious orna-
mental effect in his page.
The designer of printers' ornaments and book
illustrations, too, if he wishes to make his work
an essential and harmonious part of the book is,
while free in his own sphere, bound to remember
the conditions under which his work will be
produced and seen ; and, so far from regarding
these conditions as restraints, should rather regard
them as sources of suggestion in the treatment of
his designs, making his initial letters and decorative
borders and headings natural links to unite the
formal ornamental element of the type- page with,
the informal inclosed panel of figure design which,
in its treatment of line or black and white mass,
may be but an extension of the same principles
found in any individual letter of the type-mass.
The mechanical reason for this is, of course, that
it simplifies the process of printing, type and
woodcut being subject to the same pressure.
With good paper and ink, with good, well-cut
type and woodcut ornaments and illustrations, the
success of the book -now depends upon the actual
369 BB
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
printer, as defective printing, poor impressions,
the blocks not up to full strength, the impressions
blurred, would spoil the effect of the best work.
Bright, clean impressions are wanted, and much
care and skill are required to secure such, as well
as time to allow the sheets to dry well before being
made up into book form.
GOLD-TOOLED BOOK COVER. DESIGNED BY T. J. COBDEN-
SANDERSON.
Finally the binder takes up the tale of collective
skill necessary to the production of that one of the
most beautiful of beautiful things a beautiful
book.
Here, of course, an immense amount of art may
be called in over and above neat and careful
craftsmanship in the preliminary but most necessary
370
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
stages of " forwarding/'' as Mr. Cobden-Sanderson
has told us* Beautiful binding, indeed, may
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WHEREUPON
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SANG TOGETI-1
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GOLD-TOOLED BOOK COVER. DESIGNED BY T. J. COBDEN-
SANDERSON,
display some of the most refined qualities of
decorative art in disposition of line and pattern,
while it affords in gold tooling another instance. of
371
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
strict limitation of method lending itself to free
invention and fancy.
The artist Is under the necessity of building ^up
his lines and constructing his forms by the repetition
of the impress of certain tools, the most resourceful
designer being shown by the decorative use he is
able to make of few and simple forms. An
examination of the designs by Mr. Cobden-
Sanderson, given here, will show thatnhey are
built up of very few units. A flower, a leaf, a stem,
and straight lines of borders with the lettering,
which is also an important ornamental unit.
Everything defends upon the taste and skill with
which they are used.
From the single example of the chain of as-
sociated labour necessary to the production of a
book, we may see then how much depends upon
intelligent and harmonious co-operation in collective
work. Where each process is so important, where
the skill and taste of each worker is so necessary
to the complete result, one can hardly say that
one is more important than another certainly not
less essential. We see, too, how z>//^r-dependent
the work of each is. Each stone in the structure
must be well and truly laid, or sound progress and
satisfactory completion are impossible. Art in all
its manifold developments always teaches us this.
Fault or failure at one stage may ruin the whole
work.
Are the foundations less important^ than the
wall; is the wall less important than the window;
is the roofless essential to the house than the
carving of its porch, or the painting of its in-
terior?
372
THE COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE
If we realize the close and necessary links that
unite all workers, that are essential to the production
of things useful or beautiful, or both, should not
we do well to strive to make the association closer
and more complete than it is, and thus hand on
the lamp of good tradition in design and workman-
ship, however far we must look forward to the
enlargement of our horizon and the harmonizing
of human life, and its freedom from the sinister
powers and false ideals that now oppress and
deceive it ? And if we accept the truth that art is
unity, and that what the unit is the mass may
become, should we not strive, each in his sphere,
whatever our main work may be, to do it worthily
and well ? remembering that it is better to do a
small thing well than a big thing badly, and that
it is the spirit in which our work is done, not the
place it may accidentally occupy, or the class to
which it may belong, or the reward it may receive
in the ordinary estimation, that makes it great or
little.
373
INDEX
Ahmedabad, carved stone lat-
tice window at, 182, 183.
Alciati's "Emblems," 253-256.
Alhambra, the, 186, 187.
Amiens, sculpture at, 270,
273-
Amman, Jost, 367.
Amphora, Greek, 80, 8 1.
Angels, Christian, 244,
Andreae, Hieronymus, 284.
Andreani, Andrea, 330, 331.
Anthemion ornament, Greek,
49> 5 2 -
Apelles, 303, 304.
Arabian invasion of Persia,
tJSi 179; casement, i So;
carved pulpit, 212, 213,
215.
Arch, round, 5, 16; pointed,
5, 26.
Arches, typical forms of, 30.
Architecture, the original basis
of design, 3 ; typical con-
structive forms in, 5 ; Greek,
6-16 ; Roman, 16-20; By-
zantine, 20-25 > Norman,
26-28 ; Gothic, 28-46 ; re-
lationship between, and the
art of design generally, 46,
47.
Ardebil, Holy Carpet of the
mosque at, 175-177.
Assyrian border, 49, 50; en-
amelled tile, 49, 5 1 ; sculp-
ture, 192, 203, 204; treat-
ment of natural forms, 198-
202.
Auxerre, sculpture at, 270,
272.
Axmouth Church, tower of,
64.
Bacchus, visit of, to Icarius,
18, 201.
Barge-board, use of the, 61.
Bates, Harry, 100.
Bellini, Jacopo, 328.
Beni Hasan, tomb of, 195,
265.
Benson, W, A. S., 70.
Bewick, Thomas, revival of
the woodcut under, 119,
394-
Birds, Egyptian treatment of,
264; Japanese treatment of,
264, 266, 267; Bewick's
treatment of, 294.
Blake, William, 119, 120, 294.
Bohemia, old towns of, 188,
189.
Book-binding, 370-372,
Books, decoration of, 117-121,
133-141-'
Botticelli, Sandro, 323-326.
575
INDEX
Bouchardon, statue of Louis
XV. by, 99, 10 1.
Brasses, heraldry in, 252
characteristics of design in,
290-293.
Bronze casting, 98-101.
Brown, Ford Madox, cartoons
for glass by, 152, 153;
drawings by, 300.
Bruges, the Belfry of, 62;
grate back from, 67, 68;
iron-work at, 103 ; brass at,
291, 292.
"Buch von den Sieben Tod-
siinden," 117.
Burgmair, Hans, 284.
Burne-Jones, Sir Edward,
studies by, 126.
Byzantine art, 20-25, 141,239.
Cairo, casement from, 181 ;
pulpit from, 212, 213, 215;
carvedand inlaid panel from,
217.
Calvert, Edward, 294,
Cambridge, King's College
Chapel, 32.
Candelabra, brass, 73-75.
Candlesticks, 69, 71, 73, 76,
7-7-
Canopied tombs, 38, 39 ; seat
and sideboard, 41.
Canterbury, Anselm's Tower,
26, 27; transitional arcade,
29 ; south side of choir, 43,
45 ; fire-dog from St. Nicho-
las's Hospital, 67.
Cave men, art of the, 259, 260,
261.
Ceiling decoration, 124, 125,
126, 131.
Cellini, Ben venuto, loo.
Celtic cross, 209.
Cera perduta^ 98, 99.
Chequer pattern, the, 48, 49.
Chimneys, importance of, in
design, 63-65.
Chinese porcelain, 86, 174,
214; embroidery, 115, 211 ;
design, features of, 2 1 4, 216,
220.
Christ-church, Norman house
at, 63.
Christian symbols, 239, 240,
241.
Cimabue, 306.
Circle, the, 226.
Clarke, Purdon, 210.
Clay, modelling in, 93-96.
Cobden-Sanderson, T. J., 370-
37 2
Colosseum, the, 16, 17.
Constantine, arch of, 19.
Copper-plate engraving, 119,
294.
Cotton printing, in.
Crane, Walter, book decora-
tion, 139, 140; wall-paper
designs, 1 24-1 34 ; floor mo-
tive, 130.
Crane, wrought iron, -69.
Creeny's "Monumental
Brasses," 252, 291, 293.
Dalziel, the brothers, 298, 300.
Dante, 308; portrait of, by
Giotto, 309.
Da Vinci, Leonardo, 333-338.
De Hooghe, Romeyn, 256.
Delaune, Etienne, 363.
Delft ware, 86.
Delia Robbia ware, 164.
Dennington Church, carving
in, 42, 92.
376
Derby pottery, 86.
Devils, mediaeval, 244.
Diaper, rectangular, 88 ; Chin-
ese, 216.
Dish decoration, 85-87.
Dore, Gustave, 187.
Doyle, Richard, 298.
Drinking vessels, 79-85.
Dripstone, principal of the, 59,
60.
Du Maurier, George, 298.
Diirer, Albert, 278-285.
Eger, 189.
Egyptian pottery, 96, 97;
primitive dwellings, 167,
168; stone columns, 169,
170, 171; hieroglyphics,
194, 195; mural paintings,
196, 197 ; types of design,
219; symbolism, 229-232;
treatment of birds, 264;
realism in art, 265.
Electric light fittings, 78.
Emblem book, the, 253, 254.'
Embroidery, 113-116, 211.
Erasmus's "Praise of Folly,"
107, 1 08.
Evangelists, symbols of the,
246.
Fire-dogs, 66, 67, 103.
Fire-irons, 66, 103.
Florence, tower of the Palazzo
Vecchio, 62, 63.
Ford, Onslow, 100.
Forum, frieze discovered in
the, 270, 271.
Fra Angelico, 242, 243, 244.
Framlingham Castle, chimney
at, 64, 66.
INDEX
Fuchsius, "De Historia Stir-
pium," 286, 287.
Fylfot, the, 222, 224.
Gerard's Herbal, 286.
German chandelier, 73-75 ;
lantern, 76, 77 ; beer mugs,
82 ; pitcher, 87, 96 ; early
woodcuts, 117, 1 1 8, 278.
Giotto, 270, 306-314, 359.
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 270, 306.
Gilbert, Alfred, 100.
Glass, stained, Gothic, 32,
141 " } designing for, 141
159-
Glass bottles (Italian), 82, 83,
84.
Glass-blowing, 365, 366.
Gothic architecture, develop-
ment of, 28-46.
Gozzoli, Benozzo, 244, 318-
322.
Grate backs, cast-iron, 66-68.
Greek sculpture and archi-
tecture, 6-15 ; furniture, etc.,
1 5-1 6; water vessels, 80,
8 1 ; cylix, 85 ; ornament,
204; stele, 206; symbol-
ism, 232; gods, 236; sculp-
ture, 268 ; vases, 304.
Grimani Breviary, the, 274,
276* 277.
Grlin, Hans Baldung, 118.
Harrison, Miss Jane E., 304.
Hathersage Church, 223.
Hazelford Hall, 59.
Hempstead, fireplace at, 69.
Heraldry, national, 248; ori-
gin and development of,
248-252.
Herbals, 285, 286.
377
INDEX
Hercules, 236.
" Herring bone," 225.
Hesperides, the, 236, 237.
Hieroglyphic, Egyptian, 194,
195-
Hindu symbol of the Uni-
verse, 228, 229.
Holbein's " Dance of Death,"
254.
Hunt, Holrnan, 296, 300.
Icarius, house of, 18, 201.
Ictinus, 303.
Igdrasil, 229.
Ightham Mote House, barge-
board at, 57.
Impressionism, influenced by
Japanese art, 290.
Indian embroidery, 211; de-
sign, 1 80; carved stone
windows, 182, 183; flame
halo, 207; palmette, 210,
211.
Iron-work, wrought, 100, 102-
105-
Isle of Man, arms of, 223.
Italian flasks and bottle, 82,
83, 84 ; majolica and lustre
ware, 86; art, 185 ; painters,
304-349.
"Jack and the Beanstalk,"
238,
Japanese embroidery, 115,
1 1 6 ; art, 216; types of de-
sign, 220; treatment of
birds, 264, 266, 267 ; plant
drawing, 286, 288, 289,
Keene, Charles, 295, 296, 298.
Kelmscott Press, the, 121,
136, 139, 368.
Lamb, symbolic use of the,
246.
Lamps, design of, 69, 70, 77.
Leech, John, 298.
Leigh's Priory, chimneys at,
65-
Leighton, Lord, 300, 306.
Lintel, architecture of the, 5.
Lion, Scottish, 248 ; in herald-
ry, 252.
Lions (sculptured), Assyrian,
202, 203; modern, 203.
Loom, the, 106-108.
Lotus, Egyptian, 169, 197, i99>
230; Assyrian, 202.
Louis XV., statue of, by Bou-
chardon, 99, 101.
Luxor, column at, 169,
Lycia, tombs in, 6, 7.
Majolica ware, 86.
Manchester, Cheetham's Hos-
pital, 67.
Mantegna, Andrea, 326-333.
Manuscripts, illuminated, 274,
276, 277.
Mat, the primitive, 48, 49, 50.
MatthioluSj Herbal of, 286,
May, Phil, 299, 300.-
Medici, Giuliano de, tomb of,
346,348.
Medici, Lorenzo de, 339, 340;
tomb of, 347, 348.
Memling, 42, 43, 274, 276,.
277. ^
Memrni, Simone, 306, 307.
Michael Angelo, 336, 338-348.
Millais, Sir J. K, 296.
Modelling in clay, 93 ; in wax,
97-
Morris, William, i2i s 136, 248,
368.
378
Mosaics at Ravenna, 21-25,
239-241.
Mouldings in architecture,
origin of, 59.
Multan, tomb at, 182.
Mycenae, gate of the lions at,
6, 10.
Nile, the (sculptured group),
234, 235.
Norman architecture, 26, 27.
Norse sagas, 227.
Nuremberg, iron-work at, 103,
106.
Nuremberg Chronicle, the,
278.
Omar Khayyam, 178.
"Once a Week," 298.
Orcagna, Andrea, 244, 245,
316-319.
Oxen, heads of, 55, 56.
Oxford, Magdalen Tower, 62.
Palmette, the, 210, 211.
Pan, 244.
Pandora, story of, 237.
Paper making, 368.
Paris, Sainte Chapelle, glass
from, 141-143? J 45-
Parthenon, the, 7-14, 268;
symbolism of the, 232-234,
246. '
Peacock, the, in Byzantine art,
239.
Penshurst Place, 63.
Pergamos, altar of, 268.
Persephone, story of, 238.
Persepolis, 172, 247.
Persian pottery, 86 ; types of
design, 171, 211, 219 ;
glazed bricks, 171-173;
INDEX
carpets, 109, no, 174, 175,
177; art, 176-180; embroid-
ery, 114, 211 ; pomegran-
ates, 208, 209 ; griffin, 244,
247.
Petrarch, 319.
Phidias, 303.
Philae, lotus capital at, 171.
Photography, influence of, on
^ design, 119, 138, 300, 301.
Pisano, Niccolo, 314, 315.
Pistoia, Cathedral at, 164, 165.
Pitcher, design of a, 79.
Plate decoration, 85, 87.
Polynesian ornament, 225,
226.
" Pomerium de Tempore "
(Augsburg, 1502), 294.
Potter's wheel, the, 94.
Pottery, 79, 94-96..
Pourbos, 62.
Poynter, Sir E. J., 296, 300.
Pre-Raphaelite movement, the,
296.
Printing, the art of, 366-370.
Printed fabrics, designing for,
111-113.
Printed page, proportions of
the, 135, 137 ; decoration
of the, 135-141, 369.
Protogenes, 303, 304.
" Punch," 295-300.
Raphael, 328, 338.
Ravenna, mosaics at, 21-25,
239-241. ^
Recurring lines, principle of,
12, 28.
Rethel, Alfred, 296.
Roman architecture, 16-2 1 ;
water- vessel, 80 ; gods, 236.
Roof, pitch of the, 56.
379
INDEX
Rossetti, D, G., 296.
Rothenburg, pitcher from, 87,
96; iron balustrade from,
105, 106.
Rubens, Peter Paul, 332.
Salisbury, St. Thomas's, screen
at, 104, 1 06.
Salisbury Cathedral, Chapter
House in, 32 ; glass grisaille
in, 151.
Sambourne, Linley, 297, 298.
Sandys, Frederick, 296.
San Gimignano, towers of, 61.
Sauvastika, the, 222, 224.
Scale in design, 133.
Scandinavian clay vessel, 95 ;
ornament, 226.
Scarabasus, the, 230.
Shields, typical forms of, 249,
250.
Sicilian silk tissue, 251, 252.
Signorelli, 244.
Simonds, George, 100.
Sistine Chapel, ceiling of the,
342, 343-
"Sleeping Beauty," 238.
Snake of time, the, 228, 230.
Snuffers, 76, 77.
Soul, Egyptian symbolism of
the, 230.
Sparrow, J. S., modern glass
by, 156, 157.
Sphinx, the, 232.
Stags drinking, a Christian
emblem, 239, 240.
St. David's Cathedral, timber
roof, 43, 44 ; misereres in,
93, 94-
St. Ethelwold, Benedictional
of, 227.
Stevens, Alfred, 67, 204.
St. Mark, winged lion of, 246.
St. Martha, at. Troyes, 273,
275.
Stone-carving, 91-93.
Stonehenge, 6.
Sunlight, influence of, on art,
16, 161 et seq., 182, 184.
Susa, glazed bricks at, 171-
Tenniel, Sir John, 236, 298.
Tennyson's poems (185 7), 2 96.
Textiles, designing for, 86,
106-113, 131.
Thames, Father, 236.
Thebes, mural painting from,
196.
Theodora, the Empress (mo-
saic), 24. ......
Thonging, decoration derived
from, 54.
Title-page, the, 136.
Tivoli, Temple of the Sibyl at,
55-
Torregiano, 340,
Towers, origin and importance
of, 61-64.
Tradition in design, 349, 350.
Tree of Life, Assyrian, 198,
200 ; Persian, 211; Norse,
227, 228.
Trees, Egyptian and Assyrian
treatment of, 200-202.
" Triumph of Julius Caesar,
The," 329-332.
" Triumphs of Maximilian,
The," 282, 284, 285.
Troyes, St. Urbain, sculpture
at, 273, 275.
Turnov, old houses at, 188.
Type, arrangement of, 135-
founding, 368.
Van Eyck, 42, 73.
Venice, St. Mark's, 22, 23;
badge of the city, 246.
Venus and Paris, relief, 237.
Venus of Melos, the, 304.
Vine, the, as a Christian em-
blem, 239.
Volute ornament, origin of,
51; ancient specimens, 53.
Walker, Frederick, 296, 297.
Wall-paper designs, 1 24 et seq.
Water- vessels, 79-81.
Wattled fence, 51, 52.
Wax, modelling in, 97.
Wells Cathedral, 32, 33, 40,
41.
Westminster Abbey, nave of,
30, 3 1 ; Henry VII. 's Chapel,
32, 35> 43-
Whistler, J. McNeill, 300. .
Wicker work, 51.
INDEX
Wilton House, relief from, 237.
Winchelsea Church, tomb in,
,38, 39-
Winchester College Chapel,
glass from, 147.
Windows, traceried, 32, 34,
141 ; a?id see Glass, stained.
Winston, on glass painting,
144.
Wolgemuth, Michael, 278.
Wood-carving, 91-93.
Woodcuts, early German, 117,
1 1 8, 278-285 ; Italian, 285 ;
in Herbals, 285-288; Japan-
ese, 286, 288-290 ; revival
under Bewick, 119, 294.
| Worcester pottery, 86.
! York Minster, the " Five Sis-
| ters," 32, 37.
i Zigzag, the, 226, 227.
128466
